le Post-Mortem
Jse of Wealth

Daniel S. ILemsen

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Copyright }^°

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

POST-MORTEM USE
OF WEALTH '

INCLUDING A CONSIDERATION OF
ANTE-MORTEM GIFTS

LEGAL POINT OF VIEW

BY

DANIEL S. REMSEN

OF THE NEW YORK BAR

AUTHOR OF " THE PREPARATION AND CONTEST OF WILLS,
" INTESTATE SUCCESSION IN NEW YORK," ETC.

ETHICAL POINT OF VIEW

BY

FELIX ABLER
CHARLES F. AKED
JAMES J. FOX
DAVID H. GREER

NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS
F. DE SOLA MENDES
HENRY W. WARREN
DAVID G. WYLIE

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK AND LONDON
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1911

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BY

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Dedicated

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THE MEMORY OF MY PARENTS

PREFACE

This book is designed to aid persons of
large or small means to formulate plans for a
wise use of their property after death. To
such as possess a surplus not required for the
use of their families, it will be found of service
also in planning a judicious use of wealth
which shall begin during life and continue
after death.

As every plan for such use of property
should be considered from two points of view,
the book is divided into two parts. The first
concerns what the possessor of property can
do by means of a will or other instrument.
The second concerns what he should do.

Being much interested in the legal aspect
of the questions presented, and noting their
economic importance, I have undertaken to
set down a few guiding principles from that
standpoint. In this work I have had the

vi Preface

assistance of my son, Allen H. Remsen, a
student of this branch of the law. From the
ethical point of view it seemed more fitting
for others to speak.

I have been exceptionally fortunate in secur-
ing the co-operation of the eminent teachers
of ethics whose names are connected with
their several contributions. In this way, the
subject is dealt with from different points
of view and in a manner that cannot fail to
be both interesting and helpful. I had
hoped to secure an expression of opinion from
Cardinal Gibbons, but owing to the pressure
of other matters he could not find the time
to prepare a paper. His point of view, how-
ever, is expressed in the following extract from
his letter:

"Whilst a person should, of course, see that
the members of his or her family are provided
for, as charity begins at home, still, every one
should set aside a certain amount which
should be for the benefit of his unfortunate
brethren, and thus a certain amount should
always be devoted to charity."

Preface vii

Should this volume tend to encourage the
living to give more serious thought to a most
important subject, and aid them in planning
a disposal of their property in a manner more
beneficial to posterity, it will be a source of
gratification to the writers who have con-
tributed to these pages.

D. S. R.

New York, March, 191 1.

CONTENTS

PART I

LEGAL POINT OF VIEW

Chapter Page

I. The Power of Wealth after Death 3

II. Ownership, a Trust ... 8

III. Power Over Property Limited . 11

IV. Transmission of Property . . 18
V. Planning Transmission . .21

VI. Plans for Family and Friends . 25

VII. Plans for the Public ... 31

VIII. Plans Combining Public and Pri-
vate Purposes ... 40

IX. Usual Objects of Bounty . . 44

X. Preservation of Family Harmony 49

XI. Property to be Transmitted . 51

XII. Character of Gifts . • ■ 54

XIII. Selection OF Charitable Objects . 58

X Contents

Chapter Page

XIV. Taxation of Estates ... 67

XV. Selection of^Executors and Trus-
tees • • • . . 73

XVI. Instrument of Disposition . . . 76

XVII. Insurance of Wills ... 82

XVIII. Procrastination, an Unmixed Evil 84

PART II

ETHICAL POINT OF VIEW

I. Principles which should Govern
THE Making of Bequests for
Philanthropic Purposes . 89

By FELIX ABLER

II. The Ethical Justification of an

Inheritance Tax . . -94

By CHARLES F. AKED

III. Ethical Obligations of the Tes-

tator .... 99

By JAMES J. FOX

IV. Charity and Religion , . . 104

By DAVID H. GREER

V. The Hypnotic Power OF Wealth . 108

By NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS

Contents xi

Chapter Page

VI. A Benefaction Preliminary to All

Others . . . . .112
By F. DE SOLA MENDES

VII. Prolonged Usefulness . .115

By HENRY W. WARREN

VIII. The Higher Law in the Use of

Wealth . . . .119

By DAVID G. WYLIE

PART I
Legal Point of View

Note. — For convenience these pages are in form
directed mainly to gifts after death; they
are, nevertheless, generally applicable to
gifts taking effect during life, and to small as
well as to large estates.

CHAPTER I

THE POWER OF WEALTH AFTER DEATH

The post-mortem power of wealth is that
power which may be exerted after death
through a disposition of property by its owner
for the benefit of family, friends, and society.
The character of that power depends upon
the law of the land and the terms of the in-
strument of disposition executed thereunder.
The volume and extent of that power may or
may not be in proportion to the size of the
estate.

By grace of the laws of civilisation a man
is permitted to do certain acts in his lifetime
which give direction to his property after his
death. In thus permitting the hand of the
dead to exercise dominion over property the
laws of civilisation deal very fairly with both

3

4 Legal Point of View

the living and the dead. There are, how-
ever, limits beyond which dominion over
property after death cannot extend, which
limits determine the validity and invalidity
of all wills, settlements, and similar instru-
ments. Such limitations are well marked in
the law, but they are not always well under-
stood as is shown by the unfortunate amount
of disastrous litigation concerning estates of
deceased persons.

With proper precaution there is no reason
why any person of sound mind may not
exercise an important dominion over his
property after death. He may conserve his
estate, direct its management, benefit the
rising generation, avert litigation, and save
his fortune from the blight of family discord.
To this end he may make deeds of trust,
declarations of trust, marriage or other settle-
ments, a will, and the like. By means of one
or more of these instruments the power of
wealth after death may be made to tell for
good or ill, depending upon the wisdom with
which it is planned and the skill with which

Power of Wealth after Death 5

it is prepared. If wisely directed, wealth
may become a most efficient force after death ;
otherwise it may be a curse rather than a
blessing. Like a dangerous explosive its
value depends upon its use.

Wealth puts its possessor in the position of
"the man behind the gun." His purpose
may be likened to the target, his plan to the
gunner's aim, the law of the land to the pow-
der, the property to the shot, and the will or
other instrument to the gun. The power in
both cases takes effect at the target, and its
effectiveness depends on the gunner, the
charge, and the gun. If the giver has the
wealth and the inclination he may construct
an instrument that will accomplish during
life or after death any legal and practicable
purpose. The purposes for which such use
may be suggested are inntimerable. Some are
legal; others, illegal. Some are practicable;
others, impracticable. What purposes are
both legal and practicable necessarily de-
pend upon various considerations. Aside,
however, from the Rule against Perpetuities

6 Legal Point of View

and certain minor limitations depending upon
domicile or location of real property, a person
may dispose of his wealth so as to accom-
plish during life or after death the purposes
most near and dear to him.

The importance of the study of the ways
and means by which the power of wealth
may be projected into the future for the
benefit of mankind increases in proportion
to the wealth of the community and the
requirements of society. Such a study sug-
gests many considerations both legal and
ethical requiring sound judgment and absence
of caprice. It suggests obligations to family
and society. It suggests a distinction be-
tween family requirements and surplus
wealth. It suggests plans for public and
private welfare. It suggests expedients for
discouraging idleness and uselessness and for
stimulating beneficiaries to activity in private
life or public service. Indeed, such suggestions
are capable of indefinite development and if
properly worked into the plans of wills and
kindred instruments, may be the turning point

Power of Wealth after Death 7

in the Hfe of many a young man. Wealth
can assure leisure to its sons and the greatest
opportunities are thus open to it to encourage
them in the performance of such distinguished
services as will render their names an honour
to their families, their benefactor, and their
country. To insure leisure to one's descend-
ants without a worthy object in life is often
to insure disaster, but to spur on one's de-
scendants to worthy deeds should be one of
the greatest delights that can come to the
possessor of wealth. To plan for the good
of future generations is more than a pleasure,
it is certainly a great privilege, it should be
considered a duty.

CHAPTER II

OWNERSHIP, A TRUST

Each generation may be said to be a trustee
for the next. In a sense we hold our property
in trust for our children, our grandchildren,
and the public good. The duty is to admin-
ister such property wisely during life, and
after death to direct its disposition and use
for the best interests of the living and of
posterity yet unborn.

No man can own property and be free from
the obligations which ownership implies. Such
obligations always exist but they vary accord-
ing to circumstances of family and estate. In
some jurisdictions their binding force is sub-
ject to no tribunal except public opinion and
the owner's conscience, while in others certain
limitations are placed upon an owner's power

over his property.

8

Ownership, a Trust 9

Public opinion does not usually concern
itself with the post-mortem transmission of
property but it invariably passes judgment
where an unique opportunity to benefit man-
kind is presented by the possession of great
surplus wealth. It also concerns itself where
a man of small means, without sufficient
reason, disinherits his own family and gives
his property to strangers or to charity.

The ethical side of the post-mortem use of
wealth is not, in the main, for legal consider-
ation. It is, generally speaking, an affair of
the conscience. It is capable of furnishing
many fitting themes for the pulpit, the moral
teacher, and the essayist. In Part II, of
this volume a few of such topics are discussed
by ethical teachers of the highest standing.

Truly this is an age unparalleled in history
for its rapid changes in the sky lines of science,
mechanics, morals, and finance. It is offering
rare opportunities for the wise use of surplus
wealth.

Modern patriotism leads not to the slaugh-
ter of enemies, but to the betterment of man-

10 Legal Point of View

kind; it leads to the devotion of personality, of
money, or of both to the physical, mental,
moral, and political development of the race.
It means the doing of work that our Creator
would have us do. It says to the passing
generation, Let man be master and Mammon
serve in life and after death.

CHAPTER III

POWER OVER PROPERTY LIMITED

From very ancient times man has sought
to extend his dominion over property after
death. He has sought to unite his fortune
to his family for all time. So varied have
been the devices employed for the entailment
of property and so subtle have been the argu-
ments in their support that the history of
perpetuities, so called, may be said to be the
history of English jurisprudence. The firm
stand taken by the courts in prescribing
limitations on the owner's power over pro-
perty after death resulted in what is known
as the Rule against Perpetuities. The limits
of that power over property and the basic
principles of the rule were fairly well settled
more than a century ago.

XI

12 Legal Point of View

In the latter part of the eighteenth century
the Rule against Perpetuities played an im-
portant part in a famous case involving the
validity of the will of Peter Thellusson, a
multi-millionaire merchant of London. In
order to perpetuate his name he gave the
principal part of his estate to trustees and
directed the income to be accumulated and
added to the capital and invested in lands
during the lives of such of his sons and their
descendants as should be living at the time
of his death. On the death of the last sur-
vivor he directed that his trust estate be
divided and one part be then conveyed in tail
male to the eldest living male lineal descendant
of each of his three sons. Thus he deprived
all living descendants of any use whatsoever
of the bulk of his property. After one of the
hardest fought legal battles on record this will
was finally sustained. It resulted, however,
in the subsequent passage by the English
Parliament of what is known as the "Thel-
lusson Act," whereby the accumulation of
income is now limited in England to the

Power over Property Limited 13

minority of infants or the term of twenty-one
years.

In our time we have a notable but far less
extreme example of the way in which property
may be tied up and the income accumulated
in the will of the late Marshall Field. If it
were not for the enormous proportions of the
estate it is doubtful if the plan of Mr. Field's
will would have attracted any special atten-
tion, much less criticism. It differs very
materially from the Thellusson will which
tied up the estate for many lives and under
which no descendant living at the time of the
testator's death could ever receive any part
of the trust estate or any income therefrom.
The only persons to be benefited were certain
male descendants to be born after Thellusson's
death. The Field will, on the other hand,
ties up property only during the lives of two
grandchildren with a possible additional period
of twenty-one years. The accumulation of
income begins to decrease when his grandsons
attain the age of thirty years and ceases when
they become forty-five. When the elder

14 Legal Point of View

grandson attains the age of fifty years each
comes into possession and ownership of his
portion of the estate.

As the Common Law Rule against Per-
petuities exists in Illinois, Marshall Field was
at liberty to make substantially a duplicate
of the Thellusson will. This same rule pre-
vails quite generally throughout the United
States and permits property to be tied up not
longer than during the lives of any number
of designated persons living at the time of
the testator's death and twenty-one years
after the death of the last survivor. In a
number of States, however, the rule has been
more or less modified by statute by cutting
off the term of years, by limiting the number
of lives, or by shortening the term of accumu-
lation. In California, Idaho, Indiana, Mon-
tana, and North and South Dakota the term
of years has been eliminated; in New York,
Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin the rule
is limited to two lives; while in many States
income cannot be accumulated except during
the minority of a beneficiary.

Power over Property Limited 15

Other important limitations are foimd in
some jurisdictions. Such, for example, are
statutes of some States designed to prevent a
husband or wife from willing away from the
other or from their children more than a
certain proportion of his or her property and
in certain cases to prevent the giving of more
than a specified portion to charities.

Notwithstanding the numerous statutes
against perpetuities in this country, any
person who carefully plans the transmission
of his property can still by will or otherwise
tie up his estate or a substantial portion of it
and accumulate the income thereon during
the lives of any number of living persons and
twenty-one years after the death of the last
survivor, perhaps a hundred years or more
even as did Peter Thellusson. Such a result,
however, must be deemed of sufficient im-
portance to warrant the resort to somewhat
unusual methods combined with exceptional
precautions. Property may be thus tied up
and income accumulated by persons domiciled
in any State or country including residents of

i6 Legal Point of View

New York, Louisiana, Great Britain or other
foreign country, even those where trusts are not
authorised by law. It must be remembered,
however, that such an undertaking in most
cases is exceedingly hazardous unless techni-
cally correct in detail and should not be consid-
ered except under exceptional circumstances.
The recent unfortunate attempt of the late
Henry B. Plant, a resident of New York,
illustrates the folly of taking chances with the
law against perpetuities. His testamentary
scheme of creating a huge trust for the benefit
of his descendants to continue for more than
two lives in being was legally practicable,
but the method he employed was ill advised
and fatal. Indeed, the courts throughout
the country are adjudging each year, on one
ground or another, hundreds, if not thou-
sands, of wills and codicils wholly or partly
void as not being properly drawn with refer-
ence to the law of accumulations, trusts, and
perpetuities. ^

' The wills or codicils of the following named persons are a
few of those recently so adjudged in the City of New York

Power over Property Limited 17

alone: Maurice Ahern (trust void), James J. Alexandre (unlaw-
ful accumulations), Rachael Almstaedt (trust void), Annie Jane
Bills (execution of power of appointment void), Agnes Boerum
(illegal suspension), Paul Sandstrom Brown (trust of residuary-
estate void), Valentin Bruchaeser (trust void), Elizabeth B.
Caldwell (trusts void), Nathan Clark (certain trusts void), Amos
Cotting (trust void) , George W. Cummings (illegal suspension) ,
Mary A. Edson (certain trust including a secret one void) , George
Washington Egleston (unlawful accumulation), Georgia Fargo
(execution of power of appointment void), Joseph Fisher (trust
void), Peter Fuchs (trust void in part), James A. Garland (un-
lawful accumulation), William T, Garner (unlawful accumula-
tion), George Hagemeyer (trust provisions and power to sell
real estate void), Mary E. Henry (trust void), Jesse Hoyt (un-
lawful accumulations), George Jones (execution of power of
appointment void), James W. Lawrence (trust void), Francis
McCabe (trust void), J. Jennings McComb (certain trusts in
will and provisions in codicil void), William Mulry (trust void),
Maria Murray (execution of power of appointment void), August
Roos (unlawful accumulation), Elijah T. Sherman (trust void),
Joseph H. Snyder (unlawful accumulation). Christian F. T.
Steinway (trust void), John Sullivan (unlawful accumulation),
Samuel J. Tilden (gifts to charity void), Charles W. Trotter
(certain trusts void), George A. Trowbridge (trust of New York
real estate void), John Guy Vassar (gifts to charity void), Edward
Walker (trust void), David Wakeman (trust of New York real
estate void), George Whitefield, Jr. (trust void), Samuel Wood
(gifts to charity void) , Amos Woodruff (unlawful accumulation) ,
and Edward A. Wooley (trust void).

In this connection it may also be interesting to note that the
foundation for the Nobel Prizes might have met the fate of the
Tilden Trust had not the executors of Dr. Nobel's will entered
into "a deed of adjustment of interests" with his heirs.

As to the preparation of wiUs and kindred instruments see
p. 76 post.

CHAPTER IV

TRANSMISSION OF PROPERTY

Whatever may be the possessions of man
they cannot pass with him beyond the Styx.
The owner of property cannot direct its use
after death except by means of some instru-
ment of disposition executed in his lifetime.
Such instruments are usually instruments of
gift of which there are several classes. Those
most commonly used are wills and deeds of
trust or settlement. Under wills gifts take
effect on the death of the testator or upon the
happening of some subsequent event. Under
trust deeds or settlements gifts may or may
not take effect upon the execution of the in-
strimient. In one or more of these instru-
ments the possessor of wealth may, within
certain limits prescribed by law, insert pro-

x8

Transmission of Property 19

visions designed to extend his dominion over
his property after death. Which instrument
is better to accompHsh a particular purpose
depends upon the circumstances of each
case. Sometimes both are advisable.

Where the owner does not wish his property,
upon his death, to pass by the law of intestacy
but rather desires to project its power into the
futtire he has two courses open, (i) He
may make conditional or restricted gifts,
by will or otherwise, to persons or corpora-
tions. Thus the giver may after death
exercise power over his gift to his family or to
a corporation by making it conditional or
something less than absolute; as by establish-
ing a trust or creating a power whereby the
use of the property is prescribed or restricted.
(2) He may make absolute gifts to corpora-
tions organised for suitable purposes. Thus
if he gives property to a corporation chartered
for a special purpose he has the warrant of
the law that his gift will be applied to that
purpose. With these courses clearly in mind
the possessor of wealth may well consider

20 Legal Point of View

the planning of a will or other instnmient
or the making of gifts during life which
shall determine the use of his property after
death.

CHAPTER V

PLANNING TRANSMISSION

One of the important problems of life for
the possessor of little or much is the proper
transmission of property at or before death
that the owner's obligations to his family
and to society may be wisely and honourably
discharged.

What obligations the possessor of property
may have to family and to society in the
absence of positive law, must be determined
by his own conscience. What may constitute
a wise and honourable discharge of those
obligations his own good judgment in the
light of his conscience and the surrounding
circvimstances must determine.

The uses of wealth after death are numer-
ous. Such uses may be (i) purely private, as

21

22 Legal Point of View

for the benefit of family and friends;^ they
may be (2) purely public, as to promote some
charitable object i^ or they may be (3) mixed,
as to promote both the public and family
welfare. ^ Whether the plan embraces one or
more of these purposes, it should be specially
adapted to the size and conditions of the
estate concerned and the executors or trustees
should be provided with ample powers to
enable them to meet conditions and emergen-
cies that may arise, in much the same manner
as the deceased might have done if living.

In planning the transmission of property
the owner must take into account the extent
and character of his possessions and the law
of his domicile ; if he owns real estate, he must
consider the laws of the state or country where
it is located. He must take into account the
size of his family, their requirements, their
relationship, whether wife, husband, children
or more remote kindred, their sex, their char-
acters and habits, if married the character
and habits of their husbands or wives, their

'Seep. 25. , » See p. 31. sSeep. 40.

Planning Transmission 23

ages if living or the possibility of their sub-
sequent birth, the character of their education,
experience, and business habits, and whether
or not they are possessed of independent
means or likely to be provided for by others.
Besides these, special points of consideration
frequently arise in consequence of second
marriages and peculiar family circimistances.

The owner of property must also bear in
mind the character of gifts he wishes to make,
whether they be of money or specific pro-
perty, whether the gifts shall be absolute, con-
ditional, or in trust, whether the use or the
income shall be given for life or for a less
term, and what shall become of the capital
and accumulated income, if any, after the
termination of the trust.

In making his plan for the transmission of
property the owner should not lose sight of
the fact that many things expected or unex-
pected may happen before his plan becomes
effective. The amount or character of his
property may materially change. His real
estate may be more or less converted into

24 Legal Point of View

personal estate and vice versa. His stocks,
bonds, mortgages, and other securities may
be paid off or otherwise changed in form.
The value of his property may be very much
greater or very much less; indeed, it may
not be enough after the debts have been
paid to pay the legacies. Then, too, unborn
natural objects of bounty may come into
being or one or more beneficiaries may die
with or without leaving issue. There may
be other family changes, immediate or remote,
which are worthy of consideration. Even
the owner's condition may so change that he
may no longer be able to alter his plans to
meet conditions as they arise. In short, all
probabilities and possibilities must be taken
into consideration and the instrument of
transmission planned accordingly.

CHAPTER VI

PLANS FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Plans for the benefit of family and friends
are usually of the first importance and in a
majority of cases they alone receive consid-
eration. Persons of small means generally
make absolute gifts of their property. Many
give all to the surviving spouse as a means of
providing for the family as a whole. Many
divide their property among the different
members of the family in equal or imequal
portions, in some instances tying up certain
shares to suit varying conditions.

As estates become larger the tendency is
greater to tie up property by making gifts
which are not absolute. The law permits
the giver to use a large discretion in this
respect. He may make gifts which will
take effect or terminate on the happening of

25

26 Legal Point of View-

specified events such as marriage, birth of
issue, death without issue, death before a
certain age, simtiltaneous death, survivorship,
bankruptcy, disputing the testator's will, or
the like. He may give the use or the income
of property for life or for a shorter term. He
may pass the income from one person to
another or he may authorise his trustees to
do so. He may provide an income for his son,
daughter, or other person without rendering
his gift liable to the claims of creditors and by
proper power of appointment may authorise
his beneficiaries at death to distribute his
property by will or otherwise. With all these
possibilities and many others open to a person
disposing of property he has an almost un-
limited range within which to plan for the
benefit of family and friends and he may
incidentally retain a most important influence
over his gifts. If possessed of ample means
he can give effect to any legal and practicable
purpose affecting those most near and dear
to him.
Among recent wills of wealthy men the

Plans for Family 27

plan of the will of the late Charles L. Tiffany
is fairly typical so far as it provides for his
family. To his wife he gives his residence, its
furnishings, his horses, carriages, a substantial
sum of money, and certain shares in Tiffany
& Co. He also gives her the use of his
country home and establishes a trust from
which she is to receive the income during life
and on her death he gives the capital to
certain children. To each grandchild he
gives a pecuniary legacy, the one bearing his
name taking a double portion. To certain
persons he forgives their indebtedness. The
remainder of his estate he divides among his
children in unequal shares. To some he
makes his gifts absolute ; for others he creates
trusts during life. Under some trusts a child
takes all the income; under others a child
receives only so much of the income as the
trustees think best, the excess passing to
other persons. Under some trusts the trustees
are given power to pay over the capital as
well as the income. Any portion not thus
paid over to a child during life passes after

28 Legal Point of View

death to his issue if any and if not to brothers
and sisters, but in one case the issue of a
particular marriage is not permitted to take.
The Astor wills are interesting and import-
ant documents dealing with large holdings of
real estate in the City of New York. The
original John Jacob Astor devised the bulk
of his real estate to his son William B. for life
with power to appoint the same by deed or
will among his children and their issue.
William B. on his death exercised this power
largely in favour of his two sons, John Jacob
and William. The greater part of his own
estate he placed in trust for their benefit
with gifts over to their issue. When these
sons came to die John Jacob made an absolute
gift of the bulk of his property to his son
William Waldorf. William Astor followed
more in the footsteps of his father and grand-
father. He exercised various powers of ap-
pointment, made numerous gifts, and created
various trusts for certain of his children. He
devised the residue of his estate in trust for
the benefit of his son, John Jacob Astor, for

Plans for Family 29

life with power of appointment among his
issue and failing issue over to others.

The wills of John Carter Brown, John
Nicholas Brown, and Harold Brown like the
wills in most families have a family resem-
blance. They deal with very large estates
and guard very carefully the possible failure
of issue and the death of issue before majority
or vesting of the estate, with the result that
if these great properties finally vest in a
descendant they will probably continue to
be compactly held. The Goelet wills dealing
largely with real estate and the Vanderbilt
wills dealing largely with personal property
like many other wills of importance follow
somewhat similar lines tending to the main-
tenance and stability of family.

Dr. Charles W. Eliot observes as one of
the great disadvantages of the transmission
of wealth in families "that the young men
who inherit money often find life a terrible
bore. It is that very class of people that
oftenest ask Mallock's question, ' Is life worth
living?' It is the people who do not have

30 Legal Point of View

to work for their own livelihood and that of
their families who most frequently ask that
question. ... It is your young fellow who
has much money in the bank and more in
bonds who doubts the worth of living. It is
a miserable question to ask; the man who
asks it is in a wretched, unnatural state of
mind."

The remedy for the difficulties which en-
compass the problem of the transmission of
great wealth within the family, as Dr. Eliot
sees it, "is contained in the word service —
in the desire and purpose to be of service."
It lies "in setting up true ideals; in the
recognition of wealth as a means, and not an
end." To the stimulation of that desire and
purpose the possessor of wealth may wisely
give special attention when planning his in-
strument of disposition.

CHAPTER VII

PLANS FOR THE PUBLIC

Plans for the benefit of the public, while
usually secondary, are often of great im-
portance. A gift for a public purpose may
take several forms. As heretofore indi-
cated, such a gift may take the form of a
trust for charitable uses or of an absolute or
conditional gift. It may be given to a chari-
table corporation already in existence or to
one to be organised in order to receive the
gift and to work out the donor's plan.

The usual method is to make gifts for the
purpose of sustaining existing institutions.
In this manner Sally Thomas, a poor working
woman, bequeathed $345.83, the savings of
a long and laborious life, for foreign mis-
sions, probably the first legacy ever given for
that purpose. In like manner the late John

31

32 Les^al Point of View

S. Kennedy bequeathed millions for many
charitable purposes. Such gifts may be given
generally, without designation or restriction
as to use; they may be given as applicable to
the general use of the corporation, or they may
be assigned to a specific purpose within the
scope of the donee's powers. They are some-
times coupled with a provision that the fund
bear a designated name as a memorial, be
retained as a permanent endowment and
only the income used, or the like.

When a satisfactory corporation does not
exist the possessor of wealth may found a
suitable institution during his life or may
provide for its founding after his death.
Such a coiurse, however, should be pursued,
only after the most mature consideration on
the lines indicated in Chapter XIII on the
selection of charitable objects.

Foundations before death are quite popular
at the present time. They are at their in-
ception insured the benefit of the guiding
hand of their founder and at the time of his
death they are going concerns and ready to

Plans for the Public 33

receive any additional gifts he or others may
choose to make to carry the work forward.
This was the method pursued by Peter Cooper,
W. W. Corcoran, Matthew Vassar, Johns
Hopkins, Leland Stanford and wife, Charles
Pratt, Enos Pratt, and many others.

By certain recent foundation gifts of great
sums of money, prominence has been given
to what may be called the almoner or trustee
type of charity. Such foundations are de-
signed to provide means for research or other
charitable purposes and in a greater or less
degree to work through other agencies rather
than to do charitable work at first hand.
They are said to "reveal a new force in civil-
isation" which seems to be growing in favour.
Of these foundations we have as notable
examples the General Education Board and
the Rockefeller Foundation instituted by
John D. Rockefeller, the Carnegie Institution
of Washington and the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching by Andrew
Carnegie, the Russell Sage Foundation by
Mrs. Russell Sage, and some others. These

34 Legal Point of View

foundations are all corporations specially
chartered to receive and administer funds for
their respective chartered purposes. They
have power to make investments and to ad-
minister the income more or less in perpetuity
as almoners. Thus for all time they are
authorised to act as the agents of their found-
ers and other contributors in distributing
the income or principal for such charitable
purposes as come within the scope of the
broad and general terms of their charters.
A similar result has been attained by the
trust form of gift. The late George Peabody
created the Peabody Fund and the late John
F. Slater the fund long bearing his name
by making gifts to trustees. The property
given was in each case conveyed to certain
individuals by a deed of trust defining the
purposes of the gift and the powers and
duties of the trustees and their successors.
A similar result is sometimes attained by
means of a will.

The almoner form of charitable corpora-
tion is created as other charities are created

Plans for the Public 35

and acquires property in the same man-
ner: it requires no new form of gift. The
difference between this charity and others lies
only in the objects to be attained, that is,
the purposes for which it may make use of its
property. In other words if a donor wishes an
almoner to do his deeds of charity he should
direct his gifts into that channel ; if he wishes
to select his own charitable objects his course
should be the usual one of making direct
rather than indirect gifts.

From the standpoint of many philanthropic
persons, it is for various reasons desirable and
often more practicable to provide for suitable
foundations after death. This may be ac-
complished in several ways by deed or by
will, (i) A person may give his property to
an existing corporation in trust for the foun-
dation of an institution germane to its general
corporate purposes. In this manner Stephen
Girard gave property to the city of Phila-
delphia in trust for the foundation and
maintenance of Girard College. The late
Ervin Saunders gave his residuary estate, in

36 Legal Point of View

memory of his father, to the city of Yonkers
in trust for the foundation and maintenance
of a trades school as a part of the public
school system. This gift was made con-
ditional upon the city accepting the provisions
of the will and furnishing a suitable site
for the school. (2) A person may give his
property to trustees with a gift over to a
suitable corporation to be created after his
death and within the period prescribed by
law. This method was pursued by James H.
Roosevelt, and resulted in the Roosevelt
Hospital in the City of New York. The will
of the late Samuel J. Tilden failed to meet the
requirements of this form of gift by reason of
the fact that under the limitation over to the
Tilden Trust the gift did not necessarily vest,
by force of the will, on the happening of the
event, namely the incorporation of the Trust
"with capacity to establish and maintain a
free library and reading room in the City of
New York." The corporation was to take
nothing by virtue of the will. The estate
was given to the trustees and the legal title

Plans for the Public 37

was to remain in them until by their dis-
cretionary action, if ever, they should think
best to convey it to the corporation. The
unfortunate alternative provision was that,
if for any cause or reason the trustees
should deem it "inexpedient" thus to convey,
they should apply the residuary estate "to
such charitable, educational and scientific pur-
poses," as in their judgment would make the
estate "most widely and substantially bene-
ficial to the interest of mankind." (3) Where
the law of charitable uses prevails a person
may by will give property to trustees without
any direction as to incorporation upon a trust,
more or less indefinite as to purposes and
beneficiaries, for founding and maintaining
the desired charity. This method, although
inviting to litigation and in other respects
objectionable, has been sustained by the
courts from very ancient times in order to
save to the public charitable gifts otherwise
void, and to this fact many charities owe their
existence. Among recent instances of this
are the two great library foundations in

38 Legal Point of View

Chicago made by the wills of Walter L. New-
berry and John Crerar both of which were
subjects of litigation. In New York this
method of making charitable bequests was
made lawful by an act of the legislature after
the failure of Governor Tilden's will.

In some wills a combination of methods is
found and various expedients are introduced
to prevent failure of purpose. Thus Robert
Richard Randall gave his farm on Broadway
below Foiirteenth Street in the City of New
York to certain persons and their successors
in trust to found and maintain what is known
as the Sailors Snug Harbour, if they could
do so legally, otherwise the gift was to go to a
suitable institution to be incorporated by act
of the legislature. If these gifts should fail
and the property finally come to the testator's
heirs, he provided that they should take the
same charged with the trust for the foundation
of his proposed public charity. In like
manner the late Winfield S. Stratton of
Colorado bequeathed the residue of his es-
tate to trustees to found the "Myron Strat-

Plans for the Public 39

ton Home" in memory of his father, and in
the event that the gift should be adjudged
illegal or void he bequeathed the same to the
State of Colorado for charitable purposes.

The method by which the rich man can
best benefit a community, says Andrew
Carnegie in his Gospel of Wealth, "is to place
within its reach the ladders upon which the
aspiring can rise." After the obligations of
family have been discharged surely there can
be no more commendable object for the use
of wealth.

CHAPTER VIII

PLANS COMBINING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
PURPOSES

Plans for the accomplishment of both
public and private purposes are often found
in wills and kindred instruments and their
possible extension is worthy of consideration.
Perhaps the most usual are those requiring a
descendant or other beneficiary to perform
certain acts or engage in some useful employ-
ment in order to be benefited under the will.

Thus the late Cecil Rhodes in his will de-
clares that he feels "that it is the essence of a
proper life that every man should during some
substantial period thereof have some definite
occupation," and that an expectant heir
should not develop into a "loafer." He
therefore in entailing his Dalham Hall estate

provides for forfeiture on attempted sale by

40

Public and Private Purposes 41

an heir of his interest in the estate or failure
to engage in some profession or business other
than that of the army for a period of at least
ten years. With a similar motive the original
John Jacob Astor devised the use of certain
real estate to his grandsons for life and pro-
vided that if his son, their father, "should
consider either of them to have become un-
worthy of this devise" he might convey the
share of such one or more of them to the
others, etc.

The late William J. Gordon in benefiting
the public by giving to the city of Cleveland
his country seat known as "Gordon Park"
provided that his burial plot therein should
be maintained at public expense in as good
condition as constructed and improved by
himself or his executors.

While the will of the late Russell Sage
makes absolute gift of his residuary estate
to his wife she is undoubtedly administering
it in accordance with his wishes primarily for
the benefit of the public. Such absolute gifts
are frequently made by testators accompanied

42 Legal Point of View

by letters of request. Thus after willing his
propert}^ to his wife the late Alexander T.
Stewart loft a letter requesting, in case his
life should not be spared to complete his plans,
that she make provision for certain proposed
charities which he then had under consider-
ation. Such a method, however, frequently
fails.

Matthew Vassar, the founder of Vassar
College, in giving a certain fund to the Col-
lege charged thereon the board and tuition of
such of his female blood relatives as might
wisli to attend the College and of the daughters
of a certain friend.

The will of the late Charles Pratt is a won-
derful example of originality. Besides pro-
viding an income for his children graduated,
by the yearly addition of a certain simi to
each, he malces provision for the Pratt In-
stitute, a notable monument to a noble mind.
Then in order to induce one of his sons to
"continue as the recognised head of the
faculty and give his time and energy to the
development of the institution" and "as an

Public and Private Purposes 43

encouragement for him to continue in said
work," he provides for a certain increase in
his son's salary each year, depending some-
what on the success of the institution.

Mr. Pratt recognised the efficiency of serv-
ice "the desire and purpose to be of service."
He utilised Dr. Eliot's remedy for the dangers
of transmitting great wealth in families.
His will is clearly the result of much study.
It suggests possibilities along the line of which
other possessors of wealth may encourage
their sons so to live that an assured income
and leisure shall not blight productive effort.

CHAPTER IX

USUAL OBJECTS OF BOUNTY

The objects most near and dear to the
average man or woman are his or her spouse,
descendants, and ancestors. Then come de-
pendents, collateral relations more or less
according to degree of kinship, friends, and
employees.

In making testamentary provision for kin-
dred the donor must be mindful that his
legal obligations and duties may vary with his
domicile or the location of his property. In
some jmisdictions the wife is entitled to
dower and the husband to courtesy or other
rights independent of any will. Children and
other descendants are also more or less pro-
tected by statute in some States. Children
bom after a will is made, if not provided for or
properly mentioned in the will, are frequently

44

Usual Objects of Bounty 45

allowed to take as if no will had been made.
In some jurisdictions a testator cannot en-
tirely disinherit his children, except for cause,
or will away from his family more than a
certain part of his property or give more than
a certain portion to charity.

Where kindred are thus protected and are
dissatisfied with the terms of a will there are
several courses open to them. They may
elect (i) to take under the will and thus con-
sent to its provisions, (2) to take independ-
ently of the will what the law may give, or
(3) to contest the will, and if successful take
as if no will had been made and if unsuccessful
take under the will as if it had not been con-
tested. To cope with such privileges success-
fully and make the plan of the will workable
whether or not the privileges are exercised
often requires the most careful consideration
on the part of the testator and his cotmsel.
Special provisions must be conceived and
framed to meet all possible contingencies. As
far as may be they should also be aimed at
the prevention or discouragement of litigation.

46 Legal Point of View

Where testators are not thus hampered by-
statute they may make such gifts to their
children and other descendants as may seem
to them best or they may pass them by and
give all property to others. Where, how-
ever, antenuptial agreements or powers of
appointment exist they must be taken into
consideration.

The status of an adopted child depends on
local legislation. Statutes of adoption fre-
quently, if not usually, provide that the
adopted child shall have the rights of a child
including the right of succession to property
of the foster parent. Illegitimate children,
however, usually do not inherit except from
their mother. Their status is peculiarly im-
fortunate and a proper provision for them
requires great care.

Gifts to friends and employees require no
special mention more than to say that gifts
to employees are frequently conditioned on
employment for a longer or shorter period.

WTiere a donor wishes to benefit a person
without subjecting his gift to the management

Usual Objects of Bounty 47

and disposition of that person or to expose it
to the claims of creditors, the gift must be
something less than absolute. Such a desire
woiild suggest trusts rather than annuities or
other kinds of limited gift.

The possible existence of infants would
indicate guardianships or other testamentary
provisions for their protection. Except in
certain jurisdictions where their rights to hold
real estate depend upon treaty or statute,
aHens are imder no disabiHt^^ as to taking gifts
of money or other property.

Where a donor wishes to benefit a female
he should consider whether it may not be
of advantage to her either to create a trust
for her benefit, possibly with power of ap-
pointment, or to make his gift vest in her
for her sole and separate use to the exclu-
sion of the marital rights of any present or
futiu-e husband. In some States and foreign
countries the law insures to the husband on
the death of the wife as much as one third or
one half of her property and this right cannot
be defeated by an ordinary will. Again, in

48 Legal Point of View

certain jurisdictions if the wife dies without
a will the husband takes all the personal
property even to the exclusion of children.
Then, too, where the common law doctrine of
the unity of person between the husband and
wife has not been fully met by a married
women's act the husband's rights in his
wife's property during her life as well as her
right to make a will without his consent may
not always be clear. Consequently the form
of a gift to a female requires special consider-
ation. It also has a peculiar importance by
reason of the fact that the husband has the
legal right to change the domicile of his wife
to a jurisdiction which may prove more
favotirable to himself.

CHAPTER X

PRESERVATION OF FAMILY HARMONY

In planning the post-mortem disposition of
property the donor can consider no more
important feature of his task than the pre-
servation of harmonious relations within his
family. No rule can be stated as every donor
has a different task from his neighbour.
That difference lies not only in the amount
and character of property to be disposed of,
but also in the number, character, education,
sex, moral sentiments, and personal peculiar-
ities of heart and mind of the objects of
bounty as well as their husbands, wives, and
associates.

Families are frequently split by the un-
fortunate division of household and personal
effects, especially where sentiment is attached
to particular articles. Unwise selection of

4 49

50 Legal Point of View

executors or trustees within the family may
also be a source of friction.

A serious source of discontent is found in
discriminations made between relatives of
the same degree of kinship. While this
discontent is directed primarily against the
giver, it has a certain reflex action among the
donees particularly where undue influence is
suggested or where no good reason for the
discrimination is so self-evident as to carry
conviction to a disappointed and unwilling
mind. The most serious difliculties, however,
arise from indifferently drawn instrimients
affording opportunities for dispute as to
meaning or legality and from home-made and
stale wills and misfit codicils where the soil
for disputes and litigation is peculiarly fertile.

CHAPTER XI

PROPERTY TO BE TRANSMITTED

As a will does not become operative until
the death of its maker, it can affect only such
property as he may then own or over which
he may have a power of disposition. The
testator's plans, therefore, should embrace all
equitable estates, contingent as well as vested
interests, capable of passing as intestate
property, all property which he may acquire
after making his will, and all property over
which he may have a power of appointment.
Property held by the entirety or strictly in
joint tenancy passes only by the will of the
survivor.

Besides considering his property in bulk,
it is often important for the owner to make
special plans affecting particular property
such as his home, furniture, jewelry, clothing,

51

52 Leg^al Point of View

business, cemetery plot, real estate subject to
mortgage, personal property which is subject
to a lien, franchises, insurance policies, com-
munity property, property subject to appoint-
ment, and the like. Thus he may have
special plans in relation to the use and main-
tenance of his cemetery plot; he may wish to
make gifts of specific property, provide for
the payment of mortgage or other debts
out of particular funds, provide for the con-
tinuance, winding up, or incorporation of his
business, etc.

Special powers affecting particular property
may be important subjects of consideration.
Thus, as affecting real estate, it may be
desirable to give the executors or trustees
power to sell, mortgage, exchange, or lease,
to operate mines, to subdivide into lots, to
destroy old buildings and erect new ones, and
the like. As affecting stocks and bonds it
may be deemed wise to provide powers touch-
ing their retention as investments, voting
thereon, corporate reorganisations, etc. In
the hands of competent executors and trustees

Property to be Transmitted 53

broad and comprehensive powers are often
of the greatest value to an estate particularly
where it is involved or unusual situations are
presented.

CHAPTER XII

CHARACTER OF GIFTS

The character or form of gift is the key to
the post-mortem power of wealth. It is the
turning point between wisdom and folly in
the transmission of property. It should be
the direct consequence of a due consideration
of the age, sex, character, habits, and associa-
tions of the persons to be benefited.

Thus an intelligent determination of the
character or form of gift suggests many
important questions.

Shall the gift be of money or of a specific
article or particular piece of property? If
money is given, is its payment to be a charge
against the real as well as the personal estate?
What, if any, preference is to be given as to
payment in case of a shortage in assets?
Where a specific article or piece of property is

54

Character of Gifts 55

to be given and the gift is not to take effect
immediately as in the case of a will what, if
anything, is to take its place, if at the proper
time such property has been disposed of or
cannot be found?

If a gift is to carry with it the right of im-
mediate possession or enjoyment shall it be
absolute in character? Shall it be subject to
a condition which must be performed before
the gift can take effect? Shall it be subject
to a condition which permits the gift to take
effect under a penalty of possible forfeiture?
In case of the breach or nonfulfilment of the
condition, to whom shall the property pass?
On what contingency shall the condition de-
pend: marriage, birth, death without issue,
death before a certain age, survivorship, bank-
ruptcy, disputing or failing to dispute a will,
et cetera?

If a gift is to be to several persons is it to
be for each separately or for all collectively?
If for all are they to take as a class, as joint
tenants, or as tenants in common? Shall
after-born persons share with those previously

56 Legal Point of View

born? What provisions are desired as to
survivorship or the prevention of lapse? In
case of survivorship to what point of time is
the survivorship to relate?

If a gift is to a wife or other person having
statutory rights shall it be in addition to or in
lieu of dower or other such rights?

If a use is given shall it be for life or for a
less period? Shall the use carry the right of
possession of the particular thing, or only a
right to the income without the right of
possession? Shall the use carry with it a
right of disposal of the thing itself during life
or after death? If the use is to be given
through a trustee, shall the trustee possess a
power to apply principal, as well as income?

If a trust is intended, is the donor's purpose
such that it may be lawfully accomplished?
How long shall the trust continue and how
shall it be terminated? Shall the income be
paid over in gross or only after the usual
deductions as for taxes, expenses, etc? From
what time shall the income begin to accrue?
Shall the income be subject to anticipation, to

Character of Gifts 57

assignment, or to attack by creditors? How
shall the income be applied or paid over?
What rights, if any, shall a wife and children
of the beneficiary have in the income? In
case there shall be an excess of income shall
it be acctimulated, and if not how shall it be
applied? Finally, after the use terminates,
what disposition is to be made of the property
itself?

Since in the planning of gifts all these
questions and many others must be deter-
mined unconsciously if not consciously it is
the part of wisdom and good stewardship to
meet them squarely and to decide them
intelligently. By so doing the possessor of
wealth prevents his property from becoming
a drifting derelict for the wrecking of char-
acter and careers and converts it into a living
force building for the good of the individual
and of mankind.

CHAPTER XIII

SELECTION OF CHARITABLE OBJECTS

Addison says "charity is a virtue of the
heart and not of the hands." This is true of
lazy charity and is specially applicable to in-
discriminate giving. Wise charity is an affair
of heart, head, and hand for it implies an
intelligent sympathy, a definite purpose, and
a practical business sagacity acting in unison.

So to give as to accomplish true charity
during life or after death is often a most per-
plexing question both to the possessor of
wealth and to his legal adviser. Before one
can intelligently act or advise in the selection
of a charity he should take a general survey
of the purposes toward which charitable gifts
may be directed and the principles that should
underlie such gifts.

The main purpose of charitable gifts is to
58

Selection of Charitable Objects 59

better the condition of man. The most potent
force in that betterment is personality. The
next most potent force is money, that great
commander of the world's resources. And
here lies the opportunity of wealth to unite
potentiality and personality. The giver of
personality makes the largest gift to mankind.
His close second is the giver who ftunishes the
means whereby the giver of his personality
may be made the more effective or whereby
other givers of both personality and fortune
may be raised up to carry on indefinitely the
work of bettering the condition of man.

Most fortunate is the man who can both
contribute of his wealth and administer his
charitable gifts in his lifetime and most
fortunate is the age and the community which
possesses such men.

The purposes for which money may be
given in charity are in general well defined.
They may be enumerated as educational
advancement, moral, political, and physical
improvement, and physical and financial
relief.

6o Legal Point of View

Educational advancement is attained
through manual training as by trades schools,
art schools, sewing schools, cooking schools,
and the like. It is attained through primary-
instruction as by kindergartens and primary
schools. It is attained through secondary
instruction as by high schools, academies, and
preparatory schools. It is attained through
higher education as by laboratory, college,
and university. While the enlargement of
the boundaries of human knowledge through
research may not be strictly educational it is
often carried on in our highest institutions of
learning and is frequently so classified and
regarded as the acme of higher education.

Moral improvement is effected through
moral and religious training as in churches,
religious societies and orders. Christian asso-
ciations, Bible societies, missions, settlements,
clubs, societies for the promotion of temper-
ance, the suppression of vice, the study of
labour, and other social questions.

Political improvement may be effected by
means of gifts in aid of the study and pro-

Selection of Charitable Objects 6i

mulgation of legislative and administrative
reforms as by the establishment of scholar-
ships, lectureships, publication funds, and
gifts to municipal and civic leagues, good
government clubs, patriotic societies, societies
for the development of better elective methods
and kindred objects.

Monuments, statues, conservatories, scholar-
ships, fellowships, lectureships, libraries, read-
ing rooms, museums, art galleries, and halls
for public meetings administer to political
and social betterment as well as to the pro-
motion of education, morals, and religion.

Physical relief is administered through
societies designed to aid the needy, destitute,
delinquent, neglected, defective, and sick,
both young and old, through hospitals,
asylums, homes, and lodging houses, and by
furnishing employment, necessaries, medical
services, burials, and the like. With these
in a way may also be classed societies for
preventing cruelty to children and to animals.
Physical improvement is attained through
parks, playgrounds, baths, athletics, and

62 Legal Point of View

societies for the improvement of living con-
ditions and to render occupations more
healthful.

Financial relief is effected by temporary
loans and by legal aid — ^most wholesome
charities and great preventives of crime.

Certain other benefactions have an ex-
ceptionally broad scope and far reaching effect.
Such are gifts of public parks, fountains,
public baths, playgrounds, and for the bet-
terment of living and labour conditions.
Perhaps the most far reaching of all are
corporations or foundations devoted to the
establishment and maintenance of permanent
funds from which the income is distributed
among deserving educational or other charities.

Akin to this class are also societies for the
support of domestic and foreign missions
which administer to the physical, mental,
and moral welfare of man.

Although the foregoing classification may
be of service in some respects it must not be
followed blindly. Each form of charity in
greater or less degree partakes of some

Selection of Charitable Objects 63

other. The idea of education as it enters into
charitable purposes is doubtless the largest
and most fundamental. It is the basis of
substantially all charity, save perhaps in some
forms of distinctively relief work. No charity
stands alone. Every charity affects others
either directly or indirectly. Thus all charity
has not only a primary, but also a secondary
purpose which requires consideration.

The fundamental ideas underlying wise
charity are education and self-help, with re-
lief and betterment of conditions as tempor-
ary and contributing agencies. Relief which
does not encourage self-help is pauperising
and objectionable except in the case of very
young children, incurables, and the aged,
where it becomes merciful and Christian.
Gifts for the betterment of the physical,
mental, moral, political, and social condition
of man are usually less open to the objection
of pauperisation than gifts for physical or
financial relief.

Charities are corrective or preventive in
their operation. From an investment point

64 Legal Point of View

of view preventive work appeals more strongly
to the average giver but the sympathetic mind
is moved more to aid in the relief of the
unfortunate and in the uplift of the degraded.
Be that as it may the variety in charitable
purposes and their needs is so great that all
givers should be able to find suitable objects
of gift.

With this wide range of charitable objects
to choose from what considerations should
move the mind of the giver in making his
choice of objects to which he will give his
service or his wealth? The first considera-
tion should be the amount of time or money
to be given, the second, the selection of the
purpose which appeals most strongly to the
conscience and good judgment of the giver.

In determining these questions the giver
has before him the claims of local as well as
of national and international charities. He
should also determine various other questions,
as for example: Will the gift tend to pauper-
isation or self-help? Is the institution wisely
managed? Is it assured the active and dis-

Selection of Charitable Objects 65

interested co-operation of a numerous body
of supporters? Is the gift likely to dry up
the supporting generosity of the public? Is
the necessity for such work likely to continue?
Will the gift tend to an unwise duplication of
effort or to strengthen worthy hands already
at work?

After the giver has decided on the charitable
object he must determine whether his gift is
to contemplate:

(i) Expenditure of capital:

(o) for general purposes

(6) for special purposes such as

to erect a dormitory

to erect a hospital

to buy land

to buy books for library and the like
(2) Permanent investment of capital (endowment)
and expenditure of income only
(a) for general purposes
(&) for special purposes such as

to buy books for library

to maintain a kindergarten

to maintain scholarships and the like.

If the gift is to be memorial in nature
various other matters will suggest themselves
to the mind of the giver for his consideration.

66 Legal Point of View

While a careful consideration of all the
points indicated may be a tedious under-
taking and not necessary in the case of small
gifts, where a life is to be devoted to philan-
thropic work or where benefactions are to be
large a careful study of the subject is an
economic necessity.

CHAPTER XIV

TAXATION OF ESTATES

Estates of deceased persons are in general
subject to the usual annual taxes imposed
on real and personal property. In a large
majority of the States an inheritance or trans-
fer tax is also imposed on property which
passes at the death of the owner and in the
greater number of such States the tax affects
not only gifts to strangers and collateral
relatives, but also to spouse and descendants.
Even gifts made during life to take effect
either in possession or enjoyment at or after
the death of the giver are ordinarily taxable.
Where, however, absolute gifts are made
during life they are not usually taxable unless
in law they amount to gifts made in con-
templation of death, a question sometimes

67

68 Legal Point of View

difficult for the courts to determine. Gifts
to certain charities are often exempt.

Where an inheritance tax is to be paid the
donor should consider whether he may wish
to have the payment made out of the particular
gift or out of his general estate and make
provision accordingly.

The inheritance taxes in this country are
taking on the graduated feature found in Eng-
land. At the present time nearly one half of
the States have adopted that method of taxa-
tion. In six States the maximum is fifteen
per cent. In New York as these pages go
to press the maximum is twenty-five per cent,
with a fair prospect of a repeal of the pre-
sent law and a return to the flat rate of
one per cent on gifts to near relatives and
five per cent on gifts to collateral relatives
and strangers.

Oklahoma's inheritance tax law is certainly
unique. All inheritances and bequests above
moderate exemptions are taxed from one to
one hundred per cent depending on kinship
and amount. The rates begin with one or

Taxation of Estates 69

five per cent on small stims and increase a
fraction of one per cent on each additional one
hundred dollars. As there is no limit to such
increase it soon mounts up to one hundred
per cent. The constitutionality of this law
is yet to be tested. What makes it of general
importance is the fact that investments within
that State, including stock in local corpora-
tions held by non-residents, are subject to this
tax if held at the time of death.

Death duties in England, in one form or
another, have been growing since 1694 ^-^d
recently, by the Finance Act of 19 10, they
have been again materially increased. Gifts
passing on death are now taxed in the United
Kingdom, one, five, or ten per cent, according
to kinship. Another tax is imposed upon the
estate generally, and paid as an expense of
administration. Its rate is graded according
to the amount of property left by the de-
ceased and ranges from one per cent on small
estates to fifteen per cent on that part of an
estate which is in excess of one million pounds.
A further estate duty of two per cent is

70 Legal Point of View

collected, with certain exceptions, on settle-
ments made by the will of the deceased or
which pass by reason of his death.

The question of the taxation of estates of
deceased persons under present laws, to say
nothing of new ones which may be enacted,
warrants the most diligent attention of counsel
and full consideration on the part of the owner
before he can wisely make investments, select
executors and trustees, or plan the disposition
of any considerable estate. Where care is
not exercised an inheritance tax on the same
property is frequently collected in two different
States or countries, thus producing a double
taxation. Aside from Oklahoma such taxes
under present laws affecting collaterals fre-
quently amount to ten and sometimes fifteen
per cent on small estates, while on large estates
the rate may easily be as high as thirty or even
thirty-six and one quarter per cent, partictdarly
in the case of English estates invested in any
one of six States, and more if invested in
New York while the present law stands.
Taxation of the same property in three

Taxation of Estates 71

jurisdictions, while possible under several
statutes, is as yet comparatively infrequent.
Conditions may be conceived, however, under
which certain property may be subjected to
inheritance taxes by the laws of four juris-
diction.

In addition to inheritance taxes the annual
taxes on trust funds, in some instances, exceed
one half of the income, and the courts have
held that it is no part of the duty of an exe-
cutor or trustee to attempt to benefit an estate
by evading taxations.

Under present tax laws the natural impulse
is akin to that of self-preservation. Many
persons consider themselves under a moral
obligation, even at some personal sacrifice, to
take advantage of such proper means as the
law affords either to render their gifts non-tax-
able or to reduce to a minimum a tax which
they regard as unreasonable and unjust to
the point of confiscation. Indeed the con-
stitutions and the laws of this country are
such that where the estate of a person of large
wealth residing in this country or even in

72 Legal Point of View

England is burdened with excessive inheritance
taxes or death duties it is only because he
lacked inclination or was dilatory or care-
less in the adjustment of his affairs or in the
preparation of his will or other instrument
disposing of his property. While Englishmen
are imder greater disadvantages in this re-
spect than Americans yet even they by proper
precautions at home and proper business
relations with this country are able to share
in the benefits of a constitutional government
and thus relieve their estates of what would
otherwise amount to enormous burdens of
taxation. As all this is legally possible with-
out changing one's residence and without
resorting to any of the questionable or danger-
ous expedients so frequently suggested, it
seems safe to predict that unless the present
death duties at home and abroad are sub-
stantially reduced, owners of property will
take advantage of all lawful means to reduce
taxes until eventually a majority of large
estates will on the death of their owners pass
comparatively free from taxation.

CHAPTER XV

SELECTION OF EXECUTORS AND TRUSTEES

The prime factors in determining the
selection of executors and trustees to ad-
minister an estate after death should be
(i) safety and (2) efficiency.

The method most often adopted to secure
these qualities is to rely upon the character
and financial standing of the persons appointed :
a course which may be supplemented by
requiring bonds to be given by individuals
or surety companies. Another method is
to appoint a trust company to act alone or
jointly with one or more persons.

Where individuals are selected, whether
relatives, legal advisers, or friends, their in-
tegrity, ability, personal and business habits
and associations should be the subject of con-
cern. Preference may well be given to a

73

74 Legal Point of View

male rather than to a female, to the man who
has no adverse interest, who is morally sound,
whose family is not extravagant, who has a
means of livelihood, who does not live beyond
his means, who has good and regular business
habits, who is moderately successful, who does
not make speculation a business, who does not
buy and sell on margin, who has a mind of
his own but is not self-opinionated and who
is free from prejudice, capable of discrimina-
tion, sound in judgment, and considerate of
the rights of others.

Where there are no trusts, where the corpus
of the estate is to be divided, and where family
jealousies are not likely to be aroused there can
be no objection to the selection of executors
solely on the ground of interest or kinship.
If, however, a trust is contemplated different
considerations necessarily enter into the selec-
tion of a trustee. Thus a beneficiary, whether
a life-tenant or remainderman, is an unfit
person in law and in fact by reason of interest.
Near relatives are objectionable for the same
reason and because they are "less able to

Selection of Executors and Trustees 75

withstand the importunities of beneficiaries."
In the same way, where a husband, wife,
parent, or other near relative is appointed
trustee such relationship "is too often made
an excuse for lax management, and the know-
ledge that a breach of trust is likely to be
condoned not infrequently leads to a disregard
of strictly legal management which is the only
safeguard of trust estates."

Where a trust company is selected, after
giving due weight to capital, surplus, and
reputation it is also proper to consider the
personnel of the directors, officers, counsel,
and employees who are to constitute the
human agency through which it must act.

CHAPTER XVI

THE INSTRUMENT OF DISPOSITION

As the use to be made of property after death
depends upon the instrument of disposition
executed during Hfe, its character and the
method of its preparation require a few words.

We have seen in a preceding chapter that
the instruments most commonly employed are
wills and deeds of trust or settlement. The
former take effect only at death and are
subject to change during life. The latter are
primarily designed for making gifts to take
effect during life and may or may not be
subject to change. In other respects the
instrtmients are quite similar; the forms of
gift which may be made under each are in
general the same, as also are some of the
limitations on the power of giving. For
present purposes, therefore, it will be more

76

The Instrument of Disposition ^'j

convenient as well as more profitable not to
attempt any further distinctions, but rather
to direct our attention to the class of instru-
ment most commonly used.

The first requisite to a satisfactory trans-
mission of property is a properly planned
instrument. The second requisite is a pro-
perly prepared instrimient. The third re-
quisite is the selection of proper executors
and trustees. The first and third requisites
are subjects of former chapters. The second
requisite still remains.

"While yet I am alive let my will be made
safe and sound; for I cannot repair it after
death." This is usually the burden on the
mind of the prudent man desiring to provide
for the proper transmission of his property,
and thus to fulfil his obligations to his family
and to society.

Experience in the ante-mortem criticism of
wills has shown that notwithstanding the
obvious importance of such a writing about
sixty per cent of wills drawn by lawyers con-
tain some obscurity, flaw, or omission which

78 Legal Point of View

renders them, at least in some respects, unsafe
or unsound. Among wills drawn by laymen
the percentage of defective instruments is far
greater

The popular notion that nothing is more
simple than the preparation of a will is a
fallacy. The fact is more accurately de-
scribed by the words of Lord Coke, that:
"Wills and the construction of them, do more
perplex a man than any other learning."
And as Professor Gray says: "In no civilised
country is the making of a will so delicate
an operation and so likely to fail of success as
in New York."

There can be no doubt of the folly of a
layman undertaking to draw a will. The
only point on which there can be a fair dif-
ference of opinion is as to the qualifications
of a lawyer to whom the task may be com-
mitted. On that point each person must
judge for himself, remembering that in testa-
mentary law, as in other branches of legal
work, there are all grades of learning and
experience from which to choose and that

The Instrument of Disposition 79

lawyers like laymen are hirnian and not
infallible. Warren in his Law Studies says
that a lawyer who undertakes to act in the
preparation of a will is "bound morally as well
as legally to possess a familiar and accurate
practical knowledge of the leading rules
applicable thereto." He certainly is required
to bring to his task the utmost good faith,
due diligence, and a high sense of professional
duty. Virgil M. Harris, an eminent writer
on wills and lecturer on testamentary law in
the St. Louis University, in a recent address
said:

It is a fact that not one lawyer in ten can properly
construct a will, except it be of the simplest nature,
unless his experience in this line of work has been
extensive and he has seen the practical every-day
results of errors and faulty composition. Accurate
will-writing is an art which comes from practice and
experience and requires, in most instances, a thor-
ough knowledge of the law. One of the strangest
facts in legal history is that a great number of eminent
lawyers have constructed for themselves defective
wills; it means nothing more, however, than that their
abilities did not lie in the direction of will-writing.

In preparing the most simple document

8o Legal Point of View

every person experiences difficulty in using
the English language so as to convey his
exact meaning beyond the possibility of a
misunderstanding or double reading. In a
will this difficulty is much increased. Most
instruments are designed to take effect at the
time they are written ; not so in the case of a
will. It does not become operative under
conditions existing at the time it is made.
It speaks only from death and must be made
to fit the conditions that may then exist. In
many cases it must also deal with circum-
stances of family and estate as they may arise
from time to time after death during the lives
of one or more persons.

A forecast of all contingencies which may
arise in family or estate is no easy matter and
to provide for them properly when foreseen
is often a difficult task for the most skilful
testamentary writers and the best lawyers
sometimes differ on the legal propositions thus
presented. Yet these are the problems which
confront every person who undertakes the
actual preparation of a will. Nevertheless

The Instrument of Disposition 8i

thousands of persons each year, with indif-
ferent quaHfications and unbounded con-
fidence in their own abiHty, rush in where
persons of experience fear to tread. Thus
is fed the ever swollen stream of wasteful,
malignant, and interminable litigation con-
cerning wills.

CHAPTER XVII

INSURANCE OF WILLS

Unlike a deed or contract there is only one
party to a will. It is therefore prepared from
a single point of view and generally by one
hand without the benefit of criticism from any
adverse interest. After death, when it is too
late to make the slightest change, it is for the
first time subjected to the stress of scrutiny by
others. From divergent points of interest with
the greatest zeal, every possible ambiguity,
flaw, or omission is then hunted out and the
most is made of it.^

Some deem it wise, consequently, to indulge
in a sort of insurance by requiring their legal
adviser when drawing a will to submit to one

^ For example the famous will of the late Mary Baker G,
Eddy is at the present writing being subjected to this trying
ordeal probably to be followed by litigation.

82

Insurance of Wills 83

or more persons especially skilled in the pre-
paration of such instruments a preliminary
draft, or after execution, a complete copy
of the will for an independent ante-mortem
interpretation and opinion. In this manner a
will may be subjected to as searching and
critical an examination before the death of its
maker as it is likely to receive after his death.
Such an examination and interpretation by
experienced minds fresh to the task, if pro-
perly done, should reveal any "weak spots"
that may exist or demonstrate their absence.
Indeed, such a test of any existing will is a
wise precaution. It is peculiarly important
where wills are more or less stale, have one or
more codicils, or where strife is likely to be
instigated after death.

CHAPTER XVIII

PROCRASTINATION, AN UNMIXED EVIL

It is unfortunate for persons even of small
property to die without having set their
worldly affairs in order. It is particularly
unfortunate and a very common occurrence
for persons of large means contemplating wise
post-mortem uses of their fortunes to have
their plans thwarted by untimely death. It
is almost criminal for a man whose affairs are
in an unsatisfactory condition to delay in
making suitable provision for the post-mortem
administration of his estate by committing it
to proper hands provided with ample powers
to meet such emergencies as may arise.
Carelessness in such matters imposes un-
necessary burdens and hardships. A few
skilfully written words save much trouble
and expense to the living, avert family
disputes, and conserve the interests of all.

Procrastination, an Unmixed Evil 85

At no period in the history of the world has
preparedness for sudden death been more
appropriate than the present. In addition
to natural causes incident to the stress of
modern business methods all means of public
and private travel, by land and water, have
been accelerated to the last degree and even
mechanical flight is at hand. No one can
travel by rail or on a public highway at the
modern rate of speed, or even as a pedestrian
cross some of our thoroughfares, without
occasion for serious thought of family and
estate. Such thoughts, however, are useless
unless followed by action — prompt action
leading to a safe and sound instrument and
a quiet mind.

PART II

Ethical Point of View

87

Principles which should Govern the
Making of Bequests for Philan-
thropic Purposes

By

Felix Abler, Ph.D.,

Leader, The Society for Ethical Culture, of
New York

A FEW suggestions are here offered intended
rather to stimulate thinking than to formulate
precise rules.

I . Gratitude toward persons or institutions
that have exercised a markedly beneficent
influence on one's own development: this
point is too obvious to require elabora-
tion. Gifts and bequests made to schools
and colleges belong in this category. At the
present day it may even be desirable to issue

a warning against the lavishing of favours

89

90 Ethical Point of View

upon one's own college to the neglect of other
institutions that perhaps are more in need
and equally deserving. Partisan loyalty-
should not obscure the claims of dispassionate
philanthropy.

2. Special interest in those who follow the
same calling. Benefactions under this head
would have for their object to enlarge the
opportunities and to remove the kinds of
distress peculiar to those whose work in life
is the same as our own. Physicians, lawyers,
clergymen, artists, merchants, teachers, etc.,
have a special obligation toward their col-
leagues. Obligation corresponds to familiar-
ity with needs: we know better the needs of
persons in the same walk of life than those of
outsiders ; we know in the former case exactly
where the shoe is likely to pinch; we can,
therefore, act more wisely in providing means
of improvement and relief. The endowment
of chairs for the teaching of subjects not yet
included in the curriculum of professional
schools or insufficiently emphasised, travelling
fellowships, special loan funds, may be men-

Felix Adler 91

tioned as instances of what might be done in
this direction.

3. Concentration, or selection of some
principal object of benefaction. The principal
object should be a cause or movement cal-
culated to produce the greatest possible good
in the uplifting of mankind. Different objects
would appeal to different minds: economic
reform will commend itself to some ; to others,
the improvement of the system of education;
to others, movements intended to promote the
national health; to others, missionary propa-
ganda, etc. It should be remembered, how-
ever, that the individual, in selecting a special
cause or causes to which he will leave a con-
siderable portion of his wealth, is not morally
free to follow mere prejudice or caprice, but
that, regarding himself as the steward of a
part of the capital of society, he is under
obligation to seek earnestly for light and to
select the channel into which to pour his gifts
only after the most careful and disinterested

investigation and reflection.

4. Contributing one's quota to the main-

92 Ethical Point of View

tenance of the ordinary charities or philan-
thropies such as hospitals, institutions for
orphan children, institutions which minister
to the relief of the indigent, etc. Our civilisa-
tion has not yet reached the stage in which
we can truly affirm that no human being is
allowed to perish for want of the absolute
necessaries of existence. Our municipal and
state institutions are inadequate to cover the
needs of the deserving; private philanthropy
must step into the breach — and it is the
duty of all who have the means to do so —
to help in satisfying the primary needs of
their fellows.

It may not, perhaps, be superfluous or
presumptuous to add the following brief
counsels: Do not wait till the hour of death
is at hand, but give, if possible, during your
life so that you may participate in the ad-
ministration of your benefactions and may
receive the education, the increase of insight
into social needs, which comes of such par-
ticipation.

Exercise foresight in providing for the sub-

Felix Adler 93

stantial fulfilment of your wishes, but do
not impair the freedom of action of those
who come after you. See to it that they
carry out the spirit of your intentions, but
do not impose the weight of the dead hand on
posterity.

Finally, in providing for children and those
near of kin, be just to their higher interests
as htiman beings, as well as to their material
interests. Do not, therefore, by loading them
with excessive wealth, exempt them from the
salutary necessity to make good their place in
society by independent efforts: leave them
enough to put them into conditions which
will enable them to deploy their energies to
the best advantage, but do not paralyse the
motives which prompt to the putting forth
of energy.

II

The Ethical Justification of an
Inheritance Tax

By

Charles F. Aked, D.D.

Minister, Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, New York

There is little doubt that the modern
state will limit the power of bequest. Ob-
jections based on theories of personal liberty,
and practical objections based on law and
constitution, will all be met bravely, resolutely,
sanely. It is difficult to see that anything
better on this subject could be said than has
already been said by Mr. Andrew Carnegie.
His Gospel of Wealth remains the classic upon
the right of the community to take back
part of the dead man's wealth for works of
public service. Lawyers may for a time hold

94

Charles F. Aked 95

that his proposals are unconstitutional and
rich men's sons may talk about "spoliation"
or "confiscation" or something else of the
same character. But the good sense of future
generations will find the way.

In formulating the ethical justification of
this action by the community, the facts of
re-action and of inter-action must be borne
in mind. We are one body. The enterprise,
the cotirage, perhaps even the self-sacrifice
and devotion of the rich man contributed
much to the prosperity of the community.
He could not build a railway without opening
up a new country, creating new values, mak-
ing many persons less poor and some rich.
He could not invent, manufactxire, transport
on a large scale, or by his own labours accumu-
late wealth in any way recognised as legitimate
by the standards of our time, without serving
a thousand interests besides his own. But,
on the other hand, he could not have done
it without the conscious and unconscious
co-operation of the community. "Unearned
increment" much of his wealth, under any

96 Ethical Point of View

conceivable conditions, must remain — in-
crease, that is to say, which has gone on by
night and by day, through the natural growth
of population, the development of city and
country, and the movements of great masses of
human beings obeying the laws of their growth.
He is not to be blamed for taking advan-
tage of these factors. On the contrary,
in taking advantage of them he has served
the material interests and perhaps the moral
interests of the race. And he is entitled to the
proper rewards of his industry and insight, his
inventive skill or organising genius. Yet
while it is right for the community to pay
him or to allow him to pay himself, it does
not follow that his son, or his son's son, or his
sister, or his cousin, or his aunt, who has done
nothing but arrange to get born under favour-
able conditions and has made a prudent selec-
tion of parents beforehand, is entitled to the
same payment. The "heir" has done no-
thing: why pay him on the same scale? And
as part of the wealth had to be contributed,
in the nature of the case, by the social organism

Charles F. Aked 97

whether the community willed it or not, now
that the nattire of the case permits a redis-
tribution, the community is entitled to de-
mand a share of the wealth it created.

In a word: there are two parties to the
accumulation of that wealth, the man and
society. The man has had the enjoyment
of it, society hitherto assenting. The ''heir"
has had nothing to do with the creation of it,
and society is entitled to take back at least
a part of that which it created.

It should be added that in many cases this
loss will be a great gain to the "heir." He
will not be the loser by it. He may be a
better man and a stronger man because he
is his own man as God made him and not
merely his great-grandfather's great-grandson.
He is not to be envied if inherited wealth
makes of him an effeminate creature, idle,
luxurious, vicious; nor to be pitied if, losing
millions, he finds his manhood. On such a
view society is entitled to protect itself against
him and the like of him. It is not good for
America to produce in the homes of the rich

98 Ethical Point of View

an aristocracy of wealth imitating the char-
acteristic vices of the European aristocracies,
in the hour when they are imitating the
characteristic vices of the Renaissance. A
severely progressive inheritance tax might
tend to diminish the "wine, women, and song"
type of life — but it might add to the number
of good men in the world.

New York, March i, 19 ii

Ill

Ethical Obligations of the Testator
By

James J. Fox, D.D.

Professor of Ethics in the Catholic University
of America

The right of disposing of one's property is
looked upon by Catholic moralists as the
complement or crown of the right of private
ownership; and consistently with their un-
compromising defence of the right of property
they advocate the largest reasonable liberty
for the possessor who is making his will. But
because this latter right springs from the right
of ownership, it is evidently subject to those
limitations which restrict that of ownership.
Hence to determine what obligations are
incumbent on a testator we have to recall

99

100 Ethical Point of View

what are the restrictions which limit his right
as owner or proprietor.

" Now Catholic ethical teaching has never
tolerated the theory that the owner may do
absolutely as he pleases with his own; it is
one thing to possess property, another thing
to use it as one wills. We do not acknow-
ledge the jus abutendi. Although the owner's
right is full and complete as against his fellows,
yet, with respect to God, who alone is absolute
Proprietor, his right is but one of stewardship
or administration. He is, in the first place,
obliged to support his family in a manner
suitable to their condition; and this obliga-
tion bears not only on his administration of
his goods during life, but it also extends to his
testamentary disposals. In the well known
encyclical on the conditions of the working
classes Leo XIII has succinctly expounded
this duty and the reason for it:

It is a most sacred law of nature that a father
should provide food and all necessaries for those whom
he has begotten ; and similarly nature dictates that a
man's children, who carry on, so to speak, and con-

James J. Fox loi

tinue his own personality, should be by him provided
with all that is needful to keep themselves honour-
ably from want and misery amid the uncertainties of
this mortal life. In no other way can a father effect
this except by the ownership of lucrative property
which he can transmit to his children by inheritance.

But, let us suppose that having made
adequate provision for his family and for all
other private claims upon him, whether they
arise from strict justice or be of a less rigorous
character such as spring from friendship,
gratitude, generosity towards those who have
served him, etc., a testator still has a surplus
to dispose of. May he do what he pleases
with it, or even follow no guide but caprice
in the matter? To answer this question we
must again recall the restrictions upon the
right of ownership ; and here, too, the principles
have been adequately expressed by Leo XIII
in the document already quoted.

Man should not consider his outward possessions
as his own, but as common to all so as to share them
without hesitation when others are in need. When
what necessity demands has been supplied and one's
standing fairly taken thought for, it becomes a duty,
not of justice (except in extreme cases), to give to

102 Ethical Point of View

the indigent out of what remains over. It is a duty
not of justice, but of Christian charity, a duty not
enforced by human law; but the laws of men must
yield to the laws and judgments of Christ the true
God who in many places urges on His followers the
practice of almsgiving.

After quoting the well known Gospel texts
relative to the matter the Pontiff sums up :

Whoever has received from the divine bounty a
large share of temporal blessings, whether they be
external and corporeal, or gifts of the mind, has re-
ceived them for the perfection of his own nature, and
at the same time that he may employ them as the
steward of Providence for the benefit of others.

The Gospel term almsgiving is to be in-
terpreted largely and with reference to the
social conditions in which we live. The relief
of suffering and indigence was during the
time of Christ ahnost the only general way in
which paternal benevolence could find a field
for practical beneficence. So Christ when
urging the duty of fruitful brotherly love
points out almsgiving as the channel which
its activity is to take. Evidently, however,
the spirit which prompts almsgiving and

James J. Fox 103

other means of relieving actual distress or
suffering is also satisfied by the devotion of
superfluous wealth to such purposes as have
for their object the reformation of social in-
stitutions, conditions, or morals, which are the
widely active causes of much poverty and
suffering.

IV
Charity and Religion

By

David H. Greer

Bishop of New York

What is true charity? Not the gift of a
dole or an alms; that form of charity is fast
becoming obsolete. True charity consists in
the gift of one's self. No man can reach the
full stature of his personality except through
others. Living alone and standing apart
from others, he can never show what he is,
but only what he is not. The people about
us to-day are not really other people, they are
ourselves, in whom we become alive, and
reach and find ourselves; and in whose fea-
tures, masked and disguised by suffering,
need and ignorance, foolishness and want,

104

David H. Greer 105

we shall find, as the mask is lifted, the features
of ourselves.

Then again charity is religion, or the
handmaid of religion. Religion and charity-
have always been associated. Charity is
the offspring of religion and of the Christian
religion in particular. This is not a theologi-
cal statement, open to question; it is a state-
ment of fact, which every student of history
knows and is familiar with. For while it is
true, as Mr. Lecky tells us, that a few pagan
examples of charity have indeed descended
to us, it is also true that they are exceptional
and few, and that when Christianity appeared
charity became the rule, and was regarded,
at least by the Christian world, as a "rudi-
mentary virtue. " The motive which inspired
this early Christian charity was not always,
as is sometimes alleged, the hope of winning
another world. That may have entered into
the motive, and doubtless did a little. For
motives, even the best, are sometimes mixed
and alloyed with personal considerations.
But the motive which inspired charitable

io6 Ethical Point of View

ministrations in the early Christian world
was in the main the impulse and the desire
to minister to human life, because it was
human life which Jesus Christ had declared
to be, even in its poorest and most degraded
forms, of such transcendent worth.

It has been said that the great social
struggle of to-day is between the "haves"
and the "have nots. " Mr. Benjamin Kidd,
however, has pointed out that that is not the
case, but that it is between the selfish "haves"
and the unselfish "haves." That is where
the battle line is drawn. Those are the
persons who are fighting the battle out for
the redemption of modern society. There are
many conspicuous examples upon the better
side: men of great possessions, who realise
their great and exceptional opportunities for
usefulness and who are trying as best they
can to meet them. But the consciousness
of any kind of gift, physical gift, mental
gift, the gift of money endowment, brings
always, I think, great temptations with it.
The man who has within him a power which

David H. Greer 107

lifts him up above his fellow men will see
more things to do, not only good but bad, not
only right but wrong, than they can possibly
see, and he will be tempted to do them. He
may not yield to the temptation, but he sees
it, and will flush and burn with it at times.
The consciousness of his power, of his gift,
will have the effect to drive him into the
wilderness of integrity and virtue and purity,
struggling with the evil voices. Neverthe-
less there are many men of very large and
important affairs who are modest, simple-
minded, and unassuming, caring most of all,
not for worldly honours or worldly decorations
and flatteries which people are always ready
to give them, but for the sanction of their
conscience and the approval of their God, to
Whom they feel they must give an account
at the last of the great and important trusts
which have been committed to them.

V

The Hypnotic Power of Wealth

By

Newell Dwight Hillis, D.D., Lit. D.

Pastor, Plymouth Church, Brooklyn

Our country now has one hundred millions

of people and one hundred and thirty billions

of property. In 1650 we had twenty-five

thousand people, living on the edge of the

forest. This means that in two hundred and

fifty years our population has multiplied four

thousand times. Suppose now that in the

next two hundred and fifty years we increase

not four thousand times, but only four times,

we would then have a population of four

hundred millions. But our wealth has grown

far more rapidly than our population. One

hundred and thirty billions expressed in terms

108

Newell D wight Hillis 109

of pastures, meadows, harvests, forests, mines,
herds, flocks, towns, and cities, represents a
sum almost immeasurable. As yet we have
but scratched the surface of the soil. This
year we will during twelve months produce
fifteen billions of dollars through harvests,
manufacturing, and shipping. The best finan-
cial experts tell us that we are soon to have
five hundred billions. The streams of wealth
are coming in like a flood.

One of the results of this flood of wealth is
the choking of the ideal, and the smothering
of the great convictions of the fathers. As
never before wealth is proving its hypnotic
power. Our sons and daughters are being
charmed by the glitter of dollars as young
sparrows by the glitter of snakes' eyes.
Wealth that was intended as the almoner of
bounty toward the home, the school, the
library, the gallery, the reform, the church, is
becoming an end in itself. Multitudes are
living toward rich foods, soft raiment, and
gorgeous equipage. As property increases,
some men decay.

no Ethical Point of View

That food is ours that can be digested — no
more. At the peril of life itself man eats
more stalled ox, drinks more wine than he can
digest; the excess is poison. That property
is ours that we can digest, use, and convert
into terms of personal life and social service.
The man who is rich on the outside and poor
on the inside is a pauper by way of pre-
eminence.

The great question of the hour is, how shall
men administer their wealth — ^before death,
by making every guinea serve their fellows —
after death, by directing it into the channels
that enrich the state, and nourish democracy,
morality, and the highest manhood? The
death of a multi-millionaire in the West, who
recently left a hundred millions in such a way
as to build up his name, and who, on the
publication of his will, received only criticism
and shame, until those who honoured and
loved him are always now on the defensive,
offers warning and even suggests terror and
alarm to men who hoard here, and have not
made their gold to serve their fellows hereafter.

Newell Dwight Hillis iii

That man is a benefactor of the republic who
can show the millionaire how to make his
wealth run through the generations like the
Rhine that carries blessing as it turns mill-
wheels and waters innumerable fields, rather
than like the Dead Sea, that receives all, gives
nothing, and with its salty death becomes the
symbol of all miserly souls.

VI

A Benefaction Preliminary to all Others

By

F. de Sola Mendes, Ph.D.

Rabbi, West End Synagogue, New York

As to the post-mortem benefactions of
millionaires, the field of human activity which
has my approval, as a candidate for the
benefactions of either the living or the dead,
is that of scientific medical exploration. I
can conceive of no more useful application
for the opportunity, the power, the enthusi-
astic energy, which would be inspired by
large funds at disposal. The New Medicine,
with its vast and ramifying revelations of
germ-activities wholesome as well as baneful,
seems to cry aloud, in the name of suffering

F. de Sola Mendes 113

humanity, for deepest study and widest
application.

Not that I would thus have human beings
essay to "eat of the Tree of Knowledge" that
they may live for ever "and not die," but the
sound bodies and constitutions with which
God created them have been sorely under-
mined by centuries of excess and honeycombed
by neglect and disease. To build up new
health; to restore vitiated constitutions, by
strengthening all good germs and destroying all
evil ones, is, in my humble estimation, a prior
necessity to any and all schemes of intellectual,
eleemosynary, commercial, or political philan-
thropies. I would that the benefactors of
great wealth might think of this before ordain-
ing their monetary contributions to himian
welfare.

The first duty of such men naturally is to
conserve the comfort and welfare of their
immediate descendants by bequeathing to
them just so much as is wise, proper, and non-
enervating. After that, the care of the greater
family of humankind should come, in any

114 Ethical Point of View

form or fashion that in the wisdom of men can
be discerned as promising the greatest good
to the greatest number. And what fulfils
this ideal better than the medical research to
which I have endeavoured to point?

I hold no brief for medicine, my profession
is a different one; perhaps just therefore my
inmost conviction may be entitled to greater
attention.

VII
Prolonged Usefulness

By

Henry White Warren, D.D., LL.D.

Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church

The virile Anglo-Saxon race can plan more
than it can execute. Hence a million persons,
mostly manual labourers, come from the
older world annually to help execute our
large plans. We carry the artisan's wages
up to five or ten dollars a day instead of ten
cents a day as in indolent India, where there
is little to be done except to raise a little cotton
for little clothing, a little rice for too little
nourishment. We do this to get our large
plans accomplished.

As the years grow fewer we feel that there
115

ii6 Ethical Point of View

is more to be done for God and His children
than our time and means can achieve. So
felt the Christ. Hence He made his will:
"Not as the world giveth give I unto you?
Peace I leave with you. My peace I give
unto you." Legacies of infinite preciousness !
It is His own influence prolonged. Nearly
every person can follow His example and thus
prolong and even eternise his influence.

This should be done, first, for its influence on
the giver. It brings great serenity and satis-
faction to one's days of declining vigour to feel
that his work will go on through many and
perhaps all coming years. To give something
to God makes one feel allied to Him who gave
all for us. Second, it should be done for the
benefit of one's heirs. It gives them a per-
ception that the one they have occasion to
revere and love had higher aims than mere
money getting. These gifts to the public
good should be freely canvassed and made
known to all concerned while the testator is
still alive and in health. There will be no
contest then. The right to dispose of property

Henry White Warren 117

is recognised while the earner and owner is
living.

Sometimes property may be given to
legatees in trust for certain clearly defined
benefactions. How many there are: help to
the sick; endowments of hospital beds; re-
wards in schools ; small endowments to faithful
servant girls on their marriage; a watering
trough, or drinking fountain; for the best
acre of corn, or the daintiest front yard. On
rising higher there are endowments of many
kinds to educational institutions ; departments
in libraries; for proficiency in particular or
general studies resulting in more study at
home, or by fellowships abroad; lectureships
or professorships.

Take an illustration of a wise investment.
When Professor McCabe of the Ohio Wes-
leyan celebrated his semi-centennial of teach-
ing, some one calculated the nimiber of years
he had preached by his pupils. Some had
preached forty years and later pupils ten or
two. The sum total was over six thousand
years. Suppose some one had endowed that

ii8 Ethical Point of View

chair and thus supported that professor for
all those years and all the fifty years to fol-
low. It would have been a wise investment.
Such opportunities are still open.

Then of course there is the world-wide field
of missionary endeavour. This is every kind
of good to the most needy, hospitals, dis-
pensaries, schools, medicine, arts, churches,
and salvation to those who have none of either.
This not only blesses men but it glorifies —
makes glorious — God. To have produced
such children of world-wide benefaction re-
flects honour and glory upon the Father.

VIII
The Higher Law in the Use of Wealth

By

David G. Wylie, Ph.D., D.D.

Pastor, Scotch Presbyterian Church, New York.

The maxim, "Wealth is power," still stands
and holds good; indeed, never more so than in
this age, throbbing with energy and thirsting
for gold ! Wealth has a charm for the average
man, because it spells pleasure, place, power;
and, in the minds of many, if not of most men
and women, is the synonym of influence in all
the walks of life. Because money is so power-
ful, it is not strange that many who have
become rich have a passion, a greed for more,
and willingly bow and worship before the
golden calf.

Wealth has its uses and abuses; but its

"9

120 Ethical Point of View

abuse is no argument against its use or
possession; and the "power to get wealth"
is a talent to be used. We must scorn any
system of socialism, so called, Christian or
other type, that makes the accumulation of
wealth a sin or crime. It is not the possession
of vast fortunes that we find fault with, or
complain of, but the wrong use of wealth in
life or after death.

The proper use of accumulated wealth in
life and its post-mortem disposition is attract-
ing more and more attention from the pos-
sessors of great fortunes and from publicists,
thinkers, and writers. This is a gratifying
fact; for it is certain that if people possessing
wealth are led to think seriously respecting its
right use in life and its wise post-mortem dispo-
sition, many serious problems will be solved.

Possessors of wealth have a mighty influence
in their hands for good or evil. If used wisely,
wealth makes families united, happy, contented,
prosperous, and influential; advances art
and education; improves the moral condition
of the community and hastens the hour of

David G. Wylie 121

universal brotherhood. On the other hand,
wealth used unwisely, unjustly, wrongly,
becomes a disturbing element in home
life, and often makes members of families and
relatives oppose and hate each other. This
being so, it follows that great care should be
exercised in the present day use of wealth
and in the making of wills which dispose of
accumulated possessions.

This article is written from the moral and
religious point of view ; and on the face of it,
the proposition that parents should avoid
discrimination and favouritism in their dis-
tribution of wealth to their children in life and
its disposition after death, holds good now,
as in the past. Wise parents should learn
lessons from sacred and secular history which
shows that favouritism and discrimination
have produced tragedies in many families.

It is possible that some objector may seek
to call a halt in this argument by asking the
question. Have not fathers or mothers, if in
possession of their faculties, the legal right to
dispose of their possessions as they please:

122 Ethical Point of View

to do what they will with their own? Yes,
the legal right to throw their money into a
river or to make a bonfire of it ; but the right
to dispose of wealth should be used with a
fine discrimination. A father may have the
legal right to disinherit all his children except
the favotirite around whom his affections
cluster; but the bestowment of wealth upon
one child, rather than equally and justly
upon all, provided the other members of the
family have not forfeited, by their conduct,
the respect, confidence, and love of their
father, is siire to break up family unity and to
produce malevolent feelings. This being the
case, a parent has no moral right to dis-
criminate against his children in favour of any
particular one who, on account of a fortunate
disposition, or by skilful methods, has won
the affection of his father or mother. In the
bestowment of favoiu*s in life and, by will,
after death, parents should be guided by the
"higher law."

What father or mother worthy of the
name, would be willing to see the members

David G. Wylie 123

of his family wounded in their feelings, made
jealous, treating each other like wild beasts
because of his unjust discrimination in the
bestowment of affection or money? What
wise, sane, just father does not shrink from
the thought of his children standing about
his death-bed or his grave feeling that they
have been treated unjustly and burning with
resentment? The difficulty seems to be that
many people fail to understand that the be-
stowment of gifts in life, or by will, upon one
member of the family is a revelation of affec-
tion for one as against other members of the
family; and few things are more certain to
disrupt families than the suspicion, even, that
a parent loves one child better than another.
When it becomes evident that a parent has
more affection for one child than for another,
jealousy is sure to break out and to burn hotly
among the members of the family. Really,
this seems to have been the difficulty in the
case of the old patriarch, Jacob, which bulks
so largely in the book of Genesis. That
"coat of many colotirs" played havoc; for

124 Ethical Point of Vie w

the other brothers immediately felt that Joseph
was his father's favourite and they resented it.
It is quite possible that there were other
indications that Jacob had special affection
for Joseph which may have been manifested
in many ways; by his desire to have his
favourite son near him and to have him well
provided for, even at the expense of his other
sons. The equal distribution of affection and
fortune kindles love in the hearts of children;
the unequal distribution kills love and kindles
resentment ! History shows that this state-
ment is a hard, cold fact!

A man having made provision for his
children should treat his wife in the same just
and equable manner. Some men, in their
wills, fail to make adequate provision for their
wives. Others dispose of their estates in such
a way as to put mothers largely in the power
of their children; others, still, in such a manner
that the mother's power over her children
practically disappears. It is thus apparent
that justice and common-sense should control
men in the making of their wills.

David G. Wylie 125

Having provided for his wife and children,
it is proper and right for a man, in case his
estate is ample, to think seriously of the
demands of charity upon his fortune. Men of
wealth are under obligation to support the
great organisations and institutions of society
by a wise use of their money. In doing this
one should be guided, not by vanity, or for the
purpose of exploiting his name, but by a
desire to create an influence which will be for
the good of the community.

And here it may be worth while to suggest
that a general bequest to charity is not usually
so beneficial as one for some specific purpose ;
as for example, the alleviation of a particular
form of disease, or the establishment of a
home for unfortunate people, or the assistance
given to a hospital which deals with some
specific form of work; in a word, some need
which the testator's experience has shown not
to have been met by existing organisations,
or not fully met.

Summing up, the conclusion is evident that
parents should be just to their children in their

126 Ethical Point of View-

gifts during life and in their post-mortem
benefactions ; that men should be just and fair
to their wives by making that provision for
them which will secure their comfort and leave
them free from the possible domination of their
children ; that wills should be made only after
careful consideration, and with the assistance
and under the direction of a wise legal adviser;
and that those who have fortunes to dispose
of should see to it that the institutions which
they seek to create or assist are worthy and
such as will advance the highest interests of
their fellow-men.

INDEX

Accumulation of income, 14, 15
Adopted children, 46
Ahern, Maurice, will of, 17
Alexandre, James J., will of, 17
Almoner form of charitable

corporation, 34
Almstaedt, Rachael, will of, 17
Astor, John Jacob, will of, 28,

41

Astor, William, will of, 28
Astor, William B., will of, 28

Benefaction preliminary to all

others, 112
Bills, Annie Jane, will of, 17
Boerum, Agnes, will of, 17
Brown, Harold, will of, 29
Brown, John Carter, will of,

29
Brown, John Nicholas, will of,

29
Brown, Paul Sandstrom, will

of, 17
Bruchaeser, Valentin, will of,

17

Caldwell, Elizabeth B., will of,

17

California, Rule against Per-
petuities in, 14

Carnegie Foundation, 33
Carnegie Institution, 33
Catholic ethical teaching, 100
Character of gifts, 54
Charitable bequests, sugges-
tions as to, 89
Charitable gifts, form of, 65
Charitable objects, selection

of, 58
Charitable uses, law of, 36
Charity and religion, 104
Charity, purposes of, 58
Children, rights of, cut off by

will, 45
Children, usual object of

bounty, 44
Christian charity, 104
Clark, Nathan, will of, 17
Cooper, Peter, 33
Corcoran, W. W., 33
Cotting, Amos, will of, 17
Crerar, John, founder of li-
brary, 38
Cummings, George W., will of,
17

Daughters, protection of, from

husbands, 47
Deeds of settlement, gifts

under, when take effect, 18

127

128

Index

Deeds of settlement, property-
transmitted by, 1 8

Deeds of trust, gifts under,
when take effect, i8

Deeds of trust, property trans-
mitted by, 1 8

Delay in making will, danger-
ous, 84

Discrimination between kin-
dred, 50

Eddy, Mary Baker G., will of,
82 note

Edson, Mary A., will of, 17

Egleston, George Washington,
will of, 17

Eliot, Dr. Chas. W., observa-
tions of, 29

Entailment of property, 11

Ethical justification of in-
heritance tax, 94

Ethical obligations of the
testator, 99

Executors and trustees, selec-
tion of, 73

Family harmony, preserva-

) tion of, 49

Family, obligations to, 21

Family, plans for, 25

Family, use of wealth for,
119

Fargo, Georgia, will of, 17

Females, rights of, how pro-
tected, 47

Field, Marshall, will of, 13

Fisher, Joseph, will of, 17

Foundations after death, 35

Foundations before death, 32
Fuchs, Peter, will of, 17

Garland, James A., will of, 17
Garner, William T., will of, 17
General Education Board, 33
Gifts, character of, 54
Gifts, kinds of, 19
Gifts, methods of giving, 19
Gifts under wills, trust deeds,

or settlements, when take

effect, 18
Girard, Stephen, founder of

College, 35
Goelet wills, 29
Gordon, William J., founder

of Park, 41

Hagemeyer, George, will of, 17
Henry, Mary E., will of, 17
Higher law in use of wealth,

119
Hopkins, Johns, 33
Hoyt, Jesse, will of, 17
Husbands, marital rights of, 47
Hypnotic power of wealth, 108

Idaho, Rule against Perpe-
tuities in, 14

Illegitimate children, 46

Illinois, Rule against Per-
petuities in, 14

Indiana, Rule against Per-
petuities in, 14

Infants, protection of, rights
of, 47

Inheritance taxes, 68

Index

129

Inheritance tax, ethical justi-
fication of, 94
Inheritance taxes reduced, 71
Instrument of disposition, 76
Insurance of wills, 82

Jones, George, will of, 17

Kennedy, John S., will of, 32

Lawrence, James W., will of,

17

Limitations on power over
property, 1 1

McCabe, Francis, will of, 17
McComb, J. Jennings, will of,

17

Medical research as a charity,
112

Michigan, Rule against Per-
petuities in, 14

Minnesota, Rule against Per-
petuities in, 14

Missions, first bequest to, 31

Montana, Rule against Per-
petuities in, 14

Mulry, William, will of, 17

Murray, Maria, will of, 17

Newberry, Walter L., founder
of Library, 38

New York, Rule against Per-
petuities in, 14

Noble, Dr., will of, 17

North Dakota, Rule against
Perpetuities in, 14
9

Obligations of testator, 99
Obligations to family, 21
Ownership, a trust, 8
Ownership, obligations of, 8

Peabody Fund, 34

Peabody, George, 34

Perpetuities, Rule against, il

Philanthropic purposes, sug-
gestions as to, 89

Planning transmission of pro-
perty, 21

Plans for family and friends, 25

Plans for the public, 31

Plans for public and private
purposes, 40

Plant, Henry B,, will of, 16

Power of wealth after death, 3

Power of wealth, hypnotic,
108

Power over property limited,
II

Pratt, Charles, 33

Pratt, Charles, will of, 42

Pratt, Enos, 33

Pratt Institute, 42

Preservation of family har-
mony, 48

Procrastination, an unmixed
evil, 84

Prolonged usefulness, 115

Property affected by will, 51

Property may be tied up, 15

Property to be transmitted, 51

Property, transmission of , 18

Public, plans for, 31

Randall, Robert Richard, 38

130

Index

Research, medical, as a charity,

112

Rhodes, Cecil, will of, 40
Rockefeller Foundation, 33
Roos, August, will of, 17
Roosevelt, James H., founder

of Hospital, 36
Rule against Perpetuities, 11
Rule against Perpetuities in

the United States, 14
Russell Sage Foundation, 33

Sage, Russell, Foundation, 33

Sage, Russell, will of, 41

Sailors Snug Harbor, 38

Saunders, Ervin, 35

Settlements, 76

Settlements, gifts under, when
take effect, 18

Settlements, property trans-
mitted by, 18

Sherman, Elijah T., will of, 17

Slater, John F., 34

Snyder, Joseph H., will of, 17

South Dakota, Rule against
Perpetuities in, 14

Stanford, Leland, 33

Stein way. Christian F. T., will
of, 17

Stewart, Alexander T., will of,
42

Stratton, Winfield S., founder
of Home, 38

Sullivan, John, will of, 17

Taxation of estates, 67
Taxation of inheritances, ethi-
cal justification of, 94

Thellusson Act, 12
Thellusson, Peter, will of, 12
Thomas, Sally, will of, 31
Tiffany, Charles L., will of, 27
Tilden, Samuel J., why will

failed, 35
Tilden, Samuel J., will of, 17
Transmission of property, 18,

51

Trotter, Charles W., will of, 17
Trowbridge, George A., will of,

17

Trust deeds, 76

Trust deeds, gifts under, when
take efiEect, 18

Trust deeds, property trans-
mitted by, 18

Trustees, selection of, 73

Tying up property, 15

Tying up property as estates
become larger, 25

Unlawful accumulation, 14, 15
Use of wealth, under higher

law, 119
Usefulness prolonged, 115
Usual objects of bounty, 44

Vanderbilt wills, 29
Vassar College, 42
Vassar, John Guy, will of, 17
Vassar, Matthew, 33
Vassar, Matthew, will of, 42

Wakeman, David, will of, 17
Walker, Edward, will of, 17
Wealth, power of, after death, 3
Wealth, use of , for family, 119

Index

131

Wealth, uses of, public or

private, 21
Wealth, use under higher law,

119
Whitefield, George, Jr., will of,

17
Wife, protection of, from hus-
band, 47
Wife, rights cut off by will, 45
Wife, usual object of bounty, 44
Will affects what property, 51
Will as instrument of dis-
position, 76

Will, delay dangerous, 84
Wills, insurance of, 82
Wills, preparation of, 77
Wills, property transmitted

by, 18
Wills take effect at death, 18
Wisconsin, Rule against Per-
petuities in, 14
Women, rights of, how pro-
tected, 47
Wood, Samuel, will of, 17
Woodruff, Amos, will of, 17
Wooley, Edward A,, will of, 17

The American Business
Woman

A Guide for the Investment, Preservation,
and Accumulation of Property, Con-
taining Full Explanations and Il-
lustrations of All Necessary
Methods of Business.

By
John Howard Gromw^ell, Ph.B., LL.B.

2d Edition, Revised. $2.00 net

"Mr. Cromwell's book is without doubt one of
the valuable publications of the year ....
thoroughly well written and carefully thought out.
, . . Fascinating as is the subject of mortgages,
it is necessarily but one phase of the book. . . .
The book, as before stated, is extremely valuable,
and will be found a good investment, not only for
those women for whom it was primarily intended,
but for many men." — New York Times.

G. P. Putnam's Sons

New York London

By CHARLES A. CONANT

A History of Modern Banks
of Issue

With an Account of the Economic Crises of the Nine-
teenth Century, and the Crisis of 1907
Fourth Edition, Revised and Enlarged, 8vo. Net, Sj.^o

" No better volume can be recommended to the general reader

who wishes to familiarize himself not only with the theory of bank-
ing, but with the history and actual experience of this great agency
of industrial progress." — Chicago Evening Post.

" We can only express our hearty appreciation of the book as a
whole. It is extremely interesting. It cannot but be useful, and to
us it is very cheering. Mr. Conant's book, from beginning to end,
is a proof that sound currency is evolved necessarily from the pa»~
gress of an industrial and commercial people." — N. Y. Times.

Wall Street and the Country

A Study of Recent Financial Tendencies. 8°. Net,
$1.25. (By mail, $1.35.)

" The author shows a comprehensive grasp of economic and
financial problems, and the capacity for a clearness of statement.
. . . His book should be in the hands of all who are interested
ka. the important subjects discussed." — Wall Street Journal.

"Charles A. Conant is an able apologist for the functions and the
nethods of Wall Street. The book is most intelligent and full of
pertinent information. " — Indianapolis News.

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

New York Londoia

By Arthur Twining Hadley

(President of Yale University)

Economics. An Account of the Relations be-
tween Private Property and Public Welfare.
Octavo, gilt top . . . ne^, $2 50

" No higher compliment can be paid this work than to say
that it is hard to determine whether the epithet judicial or
judicious would more appropriately characterize it. . . .
As a whole, we do not hesitate to affirm that the results
reached by Professor Hadley will commend themselves to
candid thinkers as true. ... It will not only be found
invaluable by readers at large, but will also at once command
the attention and admiration of economists the world over."
■ — Nation.

" It is difficult to exaggerate the wealth of thought and the
keenness of analysis contained in these chapters. Each one is
crammed full of matter, presented in an attractive manner,
illustrated by references to history and to contemporary busi-
ness methods, and often summed up in some phrase or some
statement of likeness or unlikeness that is pregnant with sug-
gestiveness." — Prof. Richmond Mayo-Smith, in Political
Science Quarterly.

Railroad Transportation, Its History and Its
Laws. Crown octavo . net, $1 50

** Professor Hadley's treatise is no less timely than it is
valuable. . . . Taken as a whole, the work is the result
of an investigation no less wide than exhaustive, and one pos-
sible only to a thoroughly equipped man, familiar with many
modern languages." — Nation.

" Every page of the work bears witness to the thorough
knowledge of the writer on the subject, and to his equal ability
and practical sound sense in its discussion." — Literary World.

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW VORK LONDON

Why War Must Cease

The Great Illusion

A Study of the Relation of Military Power in Nations to their
Elconomic and Social Advantages

By Norman Angell

400 Pages. Crown 8vo. $1.50 net. By mail $1.65

Contents i

PART I.— THE ECONOMICS OF THE CASE

1. Statement of the Economic Case for War

2. The Axioms of Modern Statecraft

3. The Great Illusion

4. The Impossibility of Confiscation

5. Foreign Trade and Military Po^ver

6. The Indemnity Futility

7. How Colonies are ** Owned "

PART 2.— THE HUMAN NATURE OF THE CASE

1 . Outline of the Case for War

2. Outline of the Case for Peace

3. Unchan^in^ Human Nature

4. Do the Warlike Nations Inherit the Earth?

5. The Diminishing Factor of Physical Force : Psycho-

logical Results

6. The State as a Person : A False Analogy and its

Consequences

PART 3.— THE PRACTICAL OUTCOME

1 . Armament, but not alone Armament

2. The Relation of Defence to Atfiiression

3. Methods

" Mr. Angell throws into the dust-bin the worn-out theories,
the axioms of statecraft, the shibboleths of diplomats, the
mouthings of politicastros, as to the necessity for war. Not
to speak of it flamboyantly, this work is to war and to the
spirit of the war god the modern Mene, Mene, Tekel, Uphar-
sin, the flamingly prophetic handwriting on the wall for all
captains of whatsoever sort who by means of war would keep
humanity frightened, brutalized, enslaved, and impoverished."
— Si. Louis Globe-Democrat.

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK LONDON

UN r/ ''91i

One copy del. to Cat. Div,